You are not alone, Google and Meta are in that same desolate box. You say your startup filled a valid need? Usually items like that get at least a look. That lo

You are not alone, Google and Meta are in that same desolate box. You say your startup filled a valid need? Usually items like that get at least a look. That look has to make the user take the next step = +feedback to proceed. If he/she likes it they promulgate it. Ever see the old hair shampoo commercial, I told my friend, and she told to friends, and they told......screen full of faces. The fact that you could not progress beyond ~~20 tells me that your App had no 'gain'. Your gunpowder is wet and you will have no explosions. As to why? this is down to function/feel. If you had instructions that offended people on social/religious/gender grounds - any one of those are killers. Condescension in phrasing - a killer. Apps need good ideas/coders/manual writers, often these are not embodied in one person. You write good code, but the manual is so badly written people toss it away and walk - same for a number of other aspects. A good app can need a team of several people, each filling a niche. So analyse your app(s) and see if you can isolate the flaws. It may have a fatal flaw that killed it, or it could be you trying to be a one man band and doing a bad job in one or more aspects. Now you look down on 'influencers' - AKA advertising or promotion. Their job is eyeballs, once you get eyeballs, you still need gain or traction among users that the influencer attracted to your App, or once the dancing stops, your users will trickle away..