This app was mentioned in 2 comments, with an average of 10.50 upvotes
IMO, those "early adopters" are often faked. Look at the release of games from EA and others. They may or may not be compensated, but think about how many apps an app review site gets prompted to review.
Someone just posted here about that countdown app. The one that shut down got featured by Apple a few time and had a 150K following and had to shut down.
You might try a stunt. I think that guy that did the "your car has a dent" picture aug app did that. IIRC, he made a prank video where he took pics of some expensive cars (the app would alter the pic to show a dent) then show the owners the pics. The video led to more people "trying it out" which leads to more word of mouth ....
Maybe it was this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilaga.dudeyourcar&hl=en
It's a long shot, but if you can get someone semi-famous and do something like that.