“We Rate Dogs” creator Matt Nelson made his debut on X in 2014 as a way to practice his comedy. The 27-year-old quickly realized that when he showed off his golden retriever or inserted her in a joke, the post would do very well. 

“They were pretty universally loved,” he said to The Daily Beast. “I was like, ‘Oh, amazing. I think the internet loves dogs just as much as I do.’”

He decided to take this further and created the “We Rate Dogs” account, where he rates pooches of all shapes and sizes, with the grade always exceeding the limit. The account quickly picked up pace and already has a following of more than 9.1 million, with their ten-year anniversary coming next year!

“It was the perfect storm of what Twitter needed. There were funny animal accounts [at the time], but no one was putting effort into the captions of those photos,” Nelson said.

His initial idea for this account was to walk around and capture photos of dogs, then add a rating and witty caption along with them. But a happy accident happened when Nelson forgot to turn off their personal messages, and people started sending their furballs, asking to score them. “I was like, ‘This is so much better because it's a never-ending content stream,’” he shared with The Daily Beast.

Having amassed such a following, he decided to put it to good use. When dog owners started sending GoFundMe medical bills for their pets, he thought it was a great opportunity to test his audience.

“We had featured this family of dogs that was three pugs and a yellow Lab and they always dressed up for the holidays,” he explained. “And one of the pugs needed a mobility wheelchair due to generic senior things.” So he posted their call for help on “We Rate Dogs," and in 45 minutes, the wheelchair was fully funded. The audience was thrilled to be able to help out.

With the help of his followers, in 2020, Nelson’s online project raised $1.3 million. However, he got so overwhelmed with the large number of GoFundMe messages that he couldn’t keep track of each one. To better their fundraising efforts, Nelson and his team created a non-profit foundation called 15/10 in 2021. They focus on helping dogs in shelters, making their chances of survival and finding homes higher. With their established organization, they can now say yes to medical cases more often.

In addition to charitable causes, Nelson was also able to turn his love for making people laugh into a profitable business. With various merchandise drops, he monetized his work. And to grow his business even further, he dropped out of school, which people close to him completely supported.

“It's a roller coaster of dopamine to post and engage and see the numbers and see how many people we are reaching,” he said. “But to see that support carry over into the foundation and the real world effects… It’s just so rewarding,” Nelson concluded.