HIBT Lab! Burn Rate: Andy Dunn

Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab. I'm Guy Raz. Today we've got a return guest, Andy Dunn, the co-founder of the multi-million dollar menswear company, Bonobos. Andy first came out of the show back in 2019, and if you missed that episode, be sure to look for it in the podcast queue. It's a really, really good one. Anyway, Andy and his co-founder, Brian Spaley, launched Bonobos back in 2007 when they were both still students at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. In 2017, Bonobos was acquired by Walmart for around 300 million dollars. But the journey getting there was to say the least.

tumultuous. Andy and Brian had a falling out in 2009 that led Brian to leave and eventually build his own successful startup, Trunk Club. and Andy went through several crises running bonobos. including three separate occasions when the company almost ran out of money. But underneath all the public turmoil for Andy was a much more challenging struggle. A struggle that he largely kept hidden. Andy had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder that went largely untreated.

And despite living what appeared to be a successful and happy life from the outside, Andy experienced mania, paranoia, depression, and even suicidal thoughts during his tenure as CEO of Bonobos. He's now decided to come out publicly with a story about his condition and what he experienced. and how he's learned to manage it in a new book called Burn Rate. And Andy's with me from Chicago. Andy Dunn, welcome back to how I built this. Thanks for having me, Guy. Good to be back.

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