Where did CoFund My Pet Come From?

We started CoFund Health to give people a place to honestly crowdfund their out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. A funny thing happened soon after we launched that website: we received MANY requests to let people crowdfund for their pet’s care and give the same assurances to the donors.

As much as people love and continue to use what we built to help pay for for human health, we are also all pet-lovers with furry family members so we definitely couldn’t say “no.” So we created CoFund My Pet!

We are the only personal crowdfunding site dedicated to pets and vets. Fundraising for a vet bill with CoFund My Pet is intentionally very easy to start and manage a campaign. We wanted to make sure that we are easy for veterinarians to treat pets without having extra administrative hurdles.

No one wants to be in situation where they are caught between making the right decision for their pet’s veterinary care and being short on funds. Economic euthanasia, pet owners having to put their pet down because they cannot afford a vet bill, is the leading cause of death for pets in many clinics process the U.S. CoFund My Pet is built to give people with pets a place to get needed help from others and assure them that their donations are ONLY being used for veterinary care expenses.

We encourage you to take a look around and give a little help to any campaign that pulls at your heart-strings. And of course, if your own pet needs help please use our platform to help others help you fundraise for your family pet.

Matt Martin, Managing Director, cofounded CoFund Health, the parent organization of CoFund My Pet in 2018. Like many startup cofounders he wears a variety of hats in operations, technology, social media marketing, customer service, accounting, and strategy. If it’s happening in the business, he’s likely touching it somehow. The impact that CoFund Health was having for people and the demand for helping pets made CoFund My Pet a natural growth for us.

Prior to building CoFund Health and CoFund My Pet, Matt has had two vastly different careers—one in the U.S. Army and one in pharmaceutical marketing and access services. As an Army Infantry officer he served 8 1/2 year in a variety of assignments in the U.S., Bosnia, and Iraq. His greatest accomplishment was bringing all 94 Soldiers home safely to their families after a 12 month deployment to Iraq in 2006. After leaving the Army in 2007, Matt joined TrialCard, Inc., a privately-held fast growing pharmaceutical marketing and patient access company. He held positions across the company from Program Manager up through Senior Vice President of Strategy ultimately participating in two-different private equity buyouts of TrialCard over 3 years. Matt cut his professional teeth using a combination of proprietary technology and debit cards to pay for patient’s out-of-pocket expenses for expensive medical procedures. Being a lifelong pet-parent and having an understanding healthcare payments, launch gin CoFund My Pet was a way to bring skills and personal interests together to make a difference for families.

Matt hold a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point. In his free time he enjoys standup paddle boarding, functional fitness, rucking, staying involved in veteran initiatives like Team Red, White & Blue, Team Rubicon and the local chapter of Association of the United States Army (AUSA), as well as volunteering in his local community as a Red Shoe Crew board member with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas.

Burke Williams, Principal, cofounded CoFund Health in 2018. Burke also wears more hats than he has heads being involved in everything from content marketing, strategic partnership development, future strategy, customer service, and driving new user growth. Burke is constantly focused on finding more ways to bring CoFund My Pet to reach more pet parents and their veterinarians.

Prior to building CoFund Health and CoFund My Pet, Burke was a very early team member at TrialCard, Inc. and is independently successful in residential real estate. As one of the first hires at TrialCard, he was there well before the company was sure it would make it and, through constantly hustling to find new customers, he was critical in getting the company from being a startup to being a successful, fast-growing enterprise. Burke is industry-renowned for identifying unique ways for pharmaceutical brand managers to use the pharmacy benefit network to help patients initially access therapy and stay adherent for better patient outcomes. As the Vice President of Patient Affordability Solutions, Burke was a critical participant in two-different private equity buyouts of TrialCard over 3 years. Burke is also a life-long pet parent and he was the main force behind bringing CoFund Health’s capabilities to help pets and by launching CoFund My Pet in mid-2019.

Burke holds a B.A. from North Carolina State University. When not working on ways to help people with their healthcare expenses, Burke spends time with his daughter shuttling her between singing and acting lessons or family ski trips.