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Andy Dunn        

Founding CEO of Bonobos & Author of "Burn Rate"

Andy Dunn co-founded the menswear e-commerce brand Bonobos in 2007, and served as the company’s CEO for its first ten years, pioneering the digitally native brand movement. Bonobos was the first American brand launched to scale using e-commerce. The company’s inventory-free store model, called guide shops, redefined what an offline retail experience can be in the digital era. A decade after its founding, Bonobos was acquired for $310 million.

In 2022, Dunn published a memoir. In it, he lifts the veil on the mental health demons he’d been privately battling as he built Bonobos. Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind chronicles his journey at the intersection of entrepreneurship and bipolar disorder. Published by Penguin Random House, the book was named one of the most anticipated books of the year by Forbes and was an Amazon Editor’s Choice in 2022.

Dunn’s latest venture is called Pie. Currently in beta, the company's mantra is “more social, less media.”

As an angel investor and a founder of Red Swan, a seed-stage venture capital fund, Dunn has backed over 100 startups, including Warby Parker, Coinbase, and Hinge. Dunn chairs the board of Monica + Andy, an organic baby apparel brand, and serves on the board of RaisedBy.Us, a social giving not-for-profit.

Dunn received his B.A. at Northwestern University and M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He lives between Chicago and Rio de Janeiro with his wife and their son.

Speech Topics

The Role of Delusion in Innovation

Andy Dunn uses his own story to help us all rethink our attitude toward innovation, reality — and delusion.

Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind

At twenty-eight, fresh from Stanford’s MBA program and steeped in the move-fast-and-break-things ethos of Silicon Valley, Andy Dunn was on top of the world. He was building Bonobos, a new kind of startup—a digitally native, direct-to-consumer brand—out of his Manhattan apartment. As Dunn’s business began to take off, however, some of the very traits that powered his success as a founder—relentless drive, confidence bordering on hubris, and ambition verging on delusion—were now threatening to undo him. As he struggled to keep the startup afloat, Dunn was haunted by a ghost: a diagnosis of bipolar disorder he received after a frightening manic episode in college.

In this conversation, Dunn offers an unconventional look at the entrepreneurial journey, a parable for the twenty-first-century economy, and a revelatory look at the prevalence of mental illness in the startup community. With intimate prose, he fearlessly shines a light on the dark side of success and challenges us all to take part in the deepening conversation around creativity, performance, and disorder.

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