How did you find 12 active testers for Google Play Closed Testing?

I'm curious how other Android developers handled Google's requirement of 12 active testers for 14 continuous days before applying for production access.

When I started talking to indie developers, I kept hearing the same challenges:

• Friends and family weren't consistently active.

• Finding reliable testers on Reddit or Discord was difficult.

• Many paid services were expensive or didn't provide much feedback.

Because of that, I built TesterBee, a platform that helps connect Android developers with real testers for Google Play Closed Testing.

I'm not posting this as an advertisement—I genuinely want to learn from other developers.

• How did you complete the 12-tester requirement?

• What was the biggest challenge?

• What features would make a testing platform genuinely useful?

I'd love to hear your experience, whether you used a community, paid service, or another approach. Your feedback will help us improve TesterBee for everyone.