You need the right ten people, not a subscription built for a team of fifty.
Most contact databases are priced and built for sales teams running thousands of contacts a month. When what you actually need is a handful of the right people - early customers to talk to, sources for a piece of research, a few specific introductions - a monthly subscription to a giant database is the wrong tool for a small, specific job.
No subscription, no monthly minimum. Find ten contacts this week and nothing next month if that's all you need.
Upload just the few people you're trying to reach - there's no minimum list size to make it worthwhile.
When you're reaching out to someone important - an early customer, an interview subject - you want to know the email is real before you send it.