Podcast
How I Built This with Guy Raz
In two episodes, Andy Dunn talked about his memoir, detailing his mental‑health journey, including a bipolar diagnosis and a psych‑ward stay while founding Bonobos. He emphasized how the book candidly portrays the challenges of running a startup while managing illness and urged leaders to proactively disclose such issues. The discussion presented the memoir as a valuable, honest resource for entrepreneurs.
Episode: HIBT Lab! Burn Rate: Andy Dunn
It was a candid memoir where Andy Dunn discussed his experience founding Bonobos and his lifelong battle with bipolar disorder, including a period of mania and hospitalization. He discussed the challenges of managing his illness while running a company and emphasized the importance of proactive disclosure and treatment.
I've been reflecting a lot on it. And I realized, you know what's something that no founder has ever said? No founder has ever said this. You know, I've been building my own company, I've been running it as the CEO. What I really need to do next is be an employee again. I really need to work for someone else and not actually be the CEO anymore.
And I think the selfish part of it was to kind of experience a reintegration on my side because I'd had to hide this from everyone. It was kind of like, no, screw that. Like I don't, it wasn't my fault. Like I don't need to hide it. Number one. And number two, I know other people deal with this. And so by sharing it, hopefully there's some measure of support offer that this story is out there.
It's easy to explain away the mood swings you might experience as a person with bipolar disorder if you're also an entrepreneur as being due to the fact that you're an entrepreneur when there's something else that you need to be dealing with as well that is contributing or amplifying those highs and lows.
And I think what I'm encouraging leaders to think about now is proactively disclosing issues before there's a crisis to create a norm that it's safe to share what you're dealing with, because even if you don't have a diagnosis, life is hard and you're dealing at some point with a mental health challenge.
And so I hope, Guy, that we're sitting down to have a conversation in 20 years. I'll still be able to tell you about my latest daily mixture of medications. I'll still be seeing a doctor twice a week and twice a week is a lot, right? Seeing a doctor twice a week is a lot, but I do it because I don't want more than 72 hours or so to pass without him having a read on how I'm doing.
Episode: Advice Line with Andy Dunn of Bonobos
He said he detailed his mentalhealth journey and the wakeup call he received in the psych ward in his memoir, Burn Rate.
Got to detail a lot of that in my memoir, Burn Rate.