From factory worker to 2,000+ installs - what actually worked

I'm not a CS graduate. I didn't go to a bootcamp. Two years ago I was working in a factory. Today I have an Android app on the Play Store with 2,000+ installs, 4.6 stars, and users in 5 languages. Here's what actually moved the needle: What didn't work Product Hunt launch → 1 upvote (the community needs warming up weeks before — I didn't know that) Google Ads → too expensive without clear conversion data Reddit → got removed from subreddits for "quality reasons" even with genuine content What di