For example: Task management apps. They are a dime a dozen, sure the app doesn't have much chance of taking off, but it gets you off your ass to CREATE something. Does having something like that under your belt help your credibility? Is it a good jumping off point to becoming a "founder" of many things?
Building something is certainly better than nothing. But a successful startup founder has an uncanny ability to fix problems.<p>Task management apps are, like you said, a dime a dozen. So a good project for a founder would be to download a bunch of those apps, see what they are all doing right and more importantly what they are all doing wrong. Then build one based on what you learned. That way you get technical experience but more importantly you are solving a problem.
I would say having something original is the best way to get some credibility. For instance, when I started out in app development I built a couple of calculators that are specific to my engineering course at University. Nobody else had done anything similar. From that my career took off.