When creating a new account we show a list of ~40 suggested follows (should be the same as explore -> for you on the web client). I'm debating just auto-selecting them (possibly with a “skip" button).
I don't want to be accused of forcing people to follow other users, but the first launch experience when not following anyone is pretty terrible.
My guess is that most will tap continue without even reading anything. So it's an auto-follow but for a good purpose...
Thoughts?
Since a few have asked. The list comes from the individual instance (mastodon.social in this case). The admin can make changes to the list, a user can opt themselves out of it. It's not separated by any kind of “category”. Outside of the two company accounts we just show what the server returns.
My gut says that anything short of having a diversely populated timeline on launch is going to cause most users to run the app once, delete it and then go complain on Twitter that Mastodon is too hard.
@raygan @paul I think this is an area where Mastodon needs improvement. They could allow sharing lists, so one could click an individual and see their shared lists. Follow quickly those on the list etc. This way apps don't need to curate a list of categories, it would be done naturally by people on your server.
Paul Haddad 
Raygan Kelly 
Jari Pennanen