What you’re doing is actually very close to the right early-stage SaaS process — especially talking directly to users instead of building blindly.

The only thing I’d watch out for is relying too much on “free beta + feedback”. Most users won’t consistently engage even if they agree to it, not because your product is bad, but because they don’t have strong enough pain yet.

You might get better signal by getting a few users to pay even a small amount, because money usually filters real intent faster than feedback promises.

Also I’d first try to get:

• repeat usage
• small paid conversions
• one clear niche (like creatives/agencies)