How about the multitude of ideas I start - get all excited by this great new idea, start working on landing page picking just the right colors and font, look into the coding and hosting, all the while researching and checking out the competition only to say to myself there's no way this will work, look at all those features the other players have, I can't market, don't have a following...Fail. Next idea - rinse & repeat.
Then only to see a month or whatever later a similar idea posted to HN with them saying how they have customers and inflow. Could I have done the same? Maybe. Was it just because they could market well? Maybe. Will I ever really know? No. Cause I never tried. Will I ever learn my lesson? I can only hope.
Sorry if this comes across as a bit harsh but it sounds like you go straight for the low hanging trivial stuff that wastes your precious time before even starting work on the core value proposition.
I'm no founder (never successfully launched anything that has generated financial gain) and have only lurked in the shadows, listened and read what others have tried. Both on the failures and successes.
One thing I've noticed repeatedly is that there can always be a possibility for a product in a crowded market (it will be more difficult for sure) if it solves a niche problem that OTHERS have as well. It is not enough to assume that others know or even have this problem that your product solves. So first step should be to talk to potential customers before working on anything.
By this point you should also know what it is that you are making and why it matters for others (the value proposition). Start working on that first.
- Don't create a landing page for a product you don't have.
- Don't select colors and fonts for days when there is no product.
- Don't do SEO when you have nothing to sell.
Be ready to have it all fail as most startups do, and try to minimize the amount of lost time that goes into these endeavours.
Then only to see a month or whatever later a similar idea posted to HN with them saying how they have customers and inflow. Could I have done the same? Maybe. Was it just because they could market well? Maybe. Will I ever really know? No. Cause I never tried. Will I ever learn my lesson? I can only hope.