Background

Stripe’s onboarding docs are legendary in dev circles—but often dry to the uninitiated. They challenged ClipCut to craft a founder-driven narrative that made API integration feel inspiring.

Challenge

Our mission was twofold: educate and excite. We had to simplify technical concepts without talking down to developers, and weave Stripe’s origin story into a how-to guide.

Approach

1. Founders’ Insight: We interviewed Stripe’s co-founders and engineers for the pivotal “first-line-of-code” anecdotes that would anchor our narrative.

2. Cinematic Demos: Filmed live code deploys, then sliced them into <10-second modules—each introduced by a four-second hook (“Ready to launch in under a minute?”).

3. Dynamic Graphics: Custom motion overlays highlighted API endpoints in real time, while a minimalist electronic score underscored each reveal.

4. Multi-Platform Cuts: Produced a 45-second teaser for LinkedIn ads and the full 60-second version for YouTube pre-roll.

5. CTA Testing: A/B tested “Start coding” vs. “See in action” buttons to refine onboarding click-rates.

Results

• 70 K views within one month

• 18 % reduction in onboarding drop-off

• 32 % higher click-through on “Start coding” CTA

Conclusion

By blending founder storytelling with bite-sized technical demos, we transformed Stripe’s onboarding from a manual into a mini documentary, driving both education and excitement in under a minute.