University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
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Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind

Andy Dunn
Currency, 2022
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8

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  • Controversial
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Entrepreneur Andy Dunn shares his journey of accepting his bipolar disorder diagnosis – his “Ghost” – while building his company, Bonobos, an online site for men’s clothes. In college, he landed in the hospital after a manic episode. Dunn and his family denied his diagnosis. His frantic workload as co-founder and later CEO of Bonobos sometimes hid his mental instability – until it didn’t. After assaulting his girlfriend and her mother during a manic state, he found himself hospitalized and then in police custody. His breakdown changed his world and his entrepreneurial journey, forcing him to finally accept his Ghost and deal with it.

Summary

Former CEO Andy Dunn hid his bipolar disorder, his “Ghost,” for 16 years. Now he candidly speaks against stigmatizing mental illness.

Andy Dunn grew up in a family with a history of mental illness. They kept it a secret, even after Dunn suffered a bipolar episode. As co-founder and CEO of Bonobos, he found that the stigma surrounding mental illness became a problem in the business world. Years later, after finally accepting his diagnosis, Dunn shares his story to help others.

Dunn grew up in suburban Chicago. His paternal grandfather had become a psychiatrist in order to be able to treat his wife, Dunn’s mentally ill grandmother. Even 10 years after Dunn’s first hospitalization, he didn’t know about his grandmother’s illness. When Dunn’s bipolar disorder emerged, it became another family secret As his family’s star student, Dunn hid his vulnerability and became “king of the nerds” at school. Extremely competitive, Dunn repaid in kind those who humiliated him.

Dunn’s mania first affected him after a college New Year’s Eve Party.

On winter break from Northwestern University, Dunn ate psychedelic mushrooms. A ...

About the Author

Fortune magazine named Andy Dunn one of their “40 under 40” in 2018. He co-founded Bonobos in 2007 and later sold it to Walmart. 

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