Storis

Your stories, beautifully told with AI

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Inspiration The inspiration for Storis came from witnessing countless precious stories disappear forever. Watching my grandmother struggle to document her life experiences and seeing my fathers stories vanish with him made me realize a fundamental problem: while everyone has incredible stories to tell, the traditional barriers, writing anxiety, time constraints, technology complexity, prevent most people from preserving their legacies.

I also recognized the immense value hidden in founder stories and professional journeys. As entrepreneurs, we constantly seek wisdom from those who've walked similar paths, but most valuable experiences never get documented. The late nights wrestling with difficult decisions, the moments of breakthrough, the hard-learned lessons.. These stories could guide and inspire countless others, yet they remain locked away.

What if storytelling could be as natural as having a conversation? That's when Storis was born: to democratize storytelling for everyone, from preserving family legacies to sharing entrepreneurial wisdom.

What it does Storis is an AI-powered platform that transforms everyday conversations into lasting legacies through natural, empathetic interviews. The platform serves dual purposes:

For Personal & Family Stories:

  • Preserving elderly relatives' life experiences before they're lost
  • Documenting immigration stories and cultural heritage
  • Creating legacy content for children and grandchildren
  • Capturing family traditions and wisdom

For Professional Stories:

  • Founder journeys and entrepreneurial insights
  • Career pivots and industry wisdom
  • Leadership lessons and decision-making frameworks

The Process:

  1. Talk: Users have natural conversations with their AI interviewer, through text, voice, or immersive video interviews.
  2. Transform: AI automatically converts conversations into structured, engaging narratives
  3. Treasure: Receive professionally crafted books, audiobooks, and podcasts ready to inspire others or preserve as family keepsakes

How we built it Frontend Architecture:

  • React 18 + TypeScript: Component-based UI with type safety for robust development
  • Vite: Lightning-fast build tool and development server
  • Tailwind CSS: Utility-first styling for beautiful, responsive design

AI & Media Integration:

  • DeepSeek API: Advanced conversational AI that adapts between extracting business insights and preserving intimate family memories
  • ElevenLabs API: High-quality voice synthesis perfect for family audiobooks where voices preserve emotional connection
  • Tavus API: Immersive video interviews that capture authentic presence—especially powerful for family stories where expressions and mannerisms add irreplaceable value
  • Web Speech API: Browser-native voice recognition for natural interaction

Backend & Database:

  • Supabase: PostgreSQL database with real-time capabilities, authentication, and secure file storage
  • Row Level Security (RLS): Database-level access control for sensitive family content
  • Real-time subscriptions: Live conversation synchronization

Payment & Deployment:

  • Stripe: Subscription management with freemium model
  • Netlify: Deployment with continuous integration
  • Environment Variables: Secure API key management

Challenges we ran into

Multi-Modal API Orchestration Coordinating real-time interactions between DeepSeek (conversation AI), ElevenLabs (voice synthesis), and Tavus (video avatars) while maintaining sub-200ms response times proved extremely complex. We implemented sophisticated request queuing, response caching, and fallback mechanisms to handle API rate limits and prevent cascade failures.

Real-Time State Management Managing conversation state across multiple concurrent AI services while preventing race conditions and duplicate conversations required building custom deduplication logic at multiple levels - component, service, and database.

Content Sensitivity and Privacy Family stories often contain deeply personal information requiring enhanced security measures, while professional stories need different privacy controls. We implemented end-to-end encryption, granular access controls, and GDPR-compliant data handling with separate processing pipelines for different content sensitivity levels.

Cross-Platform Audio Processing Implementing seamless voice interactions across different browsers and mobile devices presented significant challenges. We built custom audio pipelines handling Web Speech API inconsistencies and mobile browser limitations while maintaining quality for elderly users unfamiliar with voice technology.

Bolt.new bugs There where a lot of issues and bolt.new often go in loops. Had to ask Claude and ChatGPT for help quite often.

Accomplishments that we're proud of Multi-Modal Interview Experience: Tavus video technology to create the most natural AI interview experience possible, capturing both verbal and non-verbal communication essential for family storytelling. (unfortunately it suddenly stopped working, but )

Emotionally Intelligent AI: Developed an interviewer that adapts its approach whether speaking with a startup founder about pivot strategies or a grandmother sharing childhood memories, maintaining authenticity across vastly different storytelling contexts.

Universal Accessibility: Built a platform that serves both professional knowledge sharing and family legacy preservation, making complex AI technology completely invisible to users across all technical comfort levels.

Robust Fallback Systems: Created comprehensive error handling that ensures conversations start even when external APIs fail, with intelligent fallback content that maintains the quality of the storytelling experience.

Production-Ready Architecture: Implemented real-time conversation synchronization, advanced database concurrency controls, and scalable infrastructure that handles deeply personal content with appropriate security measures.

What we learned About Human Stories: Professional and personal stories share similar core elements - challenges, growth, wisdom, and transformation. We discovered that family stories often contain business insights, and professional journeys reveal personal values. The urgency around family story preservation taught us that waiting often means stories are lost forever.

Technical Mastery: Advanced AI service integration, real-time state management, and building interfaces accessible across generational technology comfort levels. We learned the critical importance of making complex technology completely invisible while handling highly personal, valuable content with appropriate security and privacy measures.

Product Insights: There's enormous demand for authentic storytelling platforms that bridge professional and personal narratives. The barrier isn't willingness to share—it's having an accessible way to transform experiences into compelling content. Multi-modal storytelling significantly increases emotional connection, especially in family content.

Market Understanding: Families desperately want to preserve stories but lack accessible tools, while professional storytelling and family preservation have overlapping audiences—many founders want to document both their business journey and family legacy.

What's next for Storis Short-term (3-6 months):

  • Enhanced Family Collaboration: Multiple family members contributing to shared story collections with specialized interfaces for elderly relatives
  • Professional Community Platform: Connect storytellers with audiences seeking specific industry insights and mentorship
  • Advanced Story Customization: Interactive editing tools and content amplification across LinkedIn, Medium, and podcasting platforms
  • Legacy Planning Integration: Automated story preservation as part of estate planning services

Medium-term (6-12 months):

  • AI-Powered Story Matching: Connect readers with relevant professional insights while helping families discover forgotten stories through intelligent prompting
  • Voice Cloning Technology: Audiobooks narrated in the storyteller's own voice for deeply personal family content
  • Interactive Family Archives: Video-based family histories where descendants can ask questions of preserved stories
  • Cross-Cultural Story Exchange: Breaking down geographical barriers to learning from global entrepreneurial experiences

Long-term Vision:

  • Global Wisdom and Heritage Network: The definitive platform for both professional insights and family story preservation
  • AI Family Historians: Technology that helps piece together family narratives across generations and cultures
  • Corporate Family Legacy: Enterprise solutions that capture both institutional knowledge and the family stories behind family businesses
  • Generational Impact Platform: Tools specifically designed for passing business knowledge and family values to next generations

Ultimate Mission: Transform Storis into the world's largest repository of human wisdom—both professional and personal—where every hard-learned business lesson and precious family memory becomes a guiding light for future generations. We envision a future where no entrepreneur navigates challenges alone, and no family story is ever lost, because the collective wisdom and heritage of those who came before is always accessible, authentic, and inspiring.

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