Hustle culture is embedded into the Silicon Valley startup ethos, but the expectation to grind all the time can be detrimental to a founder’s mental health. We’re pleased to welcome Bonobos co-founder and former CEO Andy Dunn to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 for a fireside chat to discuss how founders can live up to the VC ecosystem’s expectations without compromising their mental health.
Dunn knows the subject matter well. In college, he was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder, a diagnosis he hid from his business life, as he grew DTC clothing brand Bonobos. In 2019, he decided to put it all out there and did a TED Talk and wrote a book, “Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind,” about his struggles with his mental illness while he was building a company, including a psychotic break in 2016 that landed him in the hospital — and in jail for 12 hours — the year before he sold Bonobos to Walmart.
He co-founded Bonobos in June 2007 as an early pioneer in the direct-to-consumer sector. The company started with a focus on men’s pants, khakis in particular, and expanded into a full suite of men’s apparel. Bonobos raised more than $127 million in venture capital before being acquired by Walmart for $310 million in 2017. Dunn also launched Red Swan Ventures, a VC fund, and is the founder of Pie.
Tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 are still available and can be purchased here. The conference will run from October 28-30 in San Francisco. Join more than 10,000 startup leaders and VC industry players for three days of content surrounding the hottest topics in startup land, from AI to SaaS to space.
