FREE WEBINAR: How Andy Dunn wrote his radical new memoir about mental health and entrepreneurship

Free virtual event: Andy Dunn, founder of Bonobos, joins Sarah Lacy to discuss his new book, Burn Rate. 

As part of our special series about memoir writing and publishing, we're thrilled to announce a very special event with Andy Dunn, founder of Bonobos and author of "Burn Rate."

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 a new kind of startup—a digitally native, direct-to-consumer brand—out of his Manhattan apartment. Bonobos was a new-school approach to selling an old-school product: men’s pants. Against all odds, business was booming.

Hustling to scale the fledgling venture, Dunn raised tens of millions of dollars while boundaries between work and life evaporated. 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, one that had punctured the idyllic veneer of his midwestern upbringing. He had understood his diagnosis as an unspeakable shame that—according to the taciturn codes of his fraternity, the business world, and even his family—should be locked away.

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. A collision course was set in motion, and it would culminate in a night of mayhem—one poised to unravel all that he had built.

Burn Rate is an unconventional entrepreneurial memoir, a parable for the twenty-first-century economy, and a revelatory look at the prevalence of mental illness in the startup community.

In this very special event, Andy Dunn sits down with Sarah Lacy to discuss Burn Rate.

In particular, they’ll discuss the decisions he made around writing this memoir, with its brutal unflinching honesty, the fears he felt around putting this story out there, and what’s happened since it was published.