Matt Nelson founded We Rate Dogs as a teen“”now it’s a booming business that’s also raised over $1.3 million for dogs in need

  • Date: 21-Jan-2021
  • Source: CNBC
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Middle East
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Matt Nelson founded We Rate Dogs as a teen“”now it’s a booming business that’s also raised over $1.3 million for dogs in need

Paulina Tomlinson owed nearly $20,000 in medical bills after her 2-year-old rescue Pitbull, Chico, was hit by a car in October. Chico could barely move without extreme pain and needed special surgery to repair his fractured vertebrae.Tomlinson and her sister, Alma Smith, maxed out their credit cards, created a GoFundMe campaign and spread the word on social media to help pay for Chico's surgery and other medical bills. They were able to raise a few thousand dollars, but it wasn't enough.Then they reached out to We Rate Dogs founder Matt Nelson. One post and 30 minutes later, and Chico's campaign had raised $18,840.Nelson's popular social media account We Rate Dogs is known for its adorable pictures of dogs, witty captions and dog ratings that always exceed a perfect 10 (of course). But We Rate Dogs has also shared over 170 fundraisers for dogs in need with its nearly 12 million followers across social media platforms.In fact, in 2020, We Rate Dogs helped raise $1.3 million, Nelson tells CNBC Make It.Nelson initially started the account on Twitter just to make people laugh. But he gained thousands of followers overnight, a number that grew to about 9 million followers over the next