The Story of My First SaaS

Fun fact: It wasn’t even supposed to be a SaaS!

As always — good morning, afternoon, or night, wherever you are!

I’ve built a bunch of projects before this, websites, Chrome extensions, a mobile app, but I never tried to monetize or promote any of them. I always saw them as ways to learn something new: a framework, a platform, a language. OrionAI started the same way.

It all began when my sister gave me access to her ChatGPT Pro subscription (she mostly used it for skincare tips 😂). I was blown away, especially by the “projects” feature that lets you upload files as context. But after hitting the 20-file limit and watching performance drop with every upload, I thought… why not build something better?

So I did. Just for myself. I made an AI assistant that could actually handle real projects, remember more, and help me solve problems I’d spend hours on alone.

Then I showed it to my friends. They loved it. A few of them started using it. One said: “You should put this out there.”

And that’s how it all started.

Today, that side project is OrionAI, a free AI chatbot built for real projects. You can:

• Upload and manage unlimited files

• Collaborate with friends and teams

• Sync GitHub repos directly into chat context

• Use multiple AI models, voice input with whisper, and more

And yes, it’s completely free. Because I built it for myself first, and I want everyone to be able to use powerful AI tools without hitting a paywall.

I launched it just a few days ago and I’m so excited to see where this goes. Thanks so much for reading my story. If you have thoughts or feedback, I’d love to hear from you 🙏

TL;DR: My sister gave me ChatGPT. It had limits. I built a better version for myself. Friends loved it. Now it’s a real SaaS. And it’s free.