[mkandler]

Not knowing your advantages as an early company.

For example: you get a huge boost in rankings when you first launch an app in the App Store. Not enough to be #1 above a Calm, but certainly #1 for medium-difficulty keywords. Once this advantage goes away, you'll need a strong ASO strategy and money to spend on ads to boost keywords.

Some of these opportunities are tough to overcome after you missed them. Press is very similar: reporters will cover a newly launched product, but new features likely won't get a feature.