Burn Rate

Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind

De: Andy Dunn

Narrado por: Andy Dunn

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this “gripping” (TechCrunch), “eye-opening” (Gayle King, Oprah Daily) memoir of mental illness and entrepreneurship, the co-founder of the menswear startup Bonobos opens up about the struggle with bipolar disorder that nearly cost him everything.

“Arrestingly candid . . . the most powerful book I’ve read on manic depression since An Unquiet Mind.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of WorkLife

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. With intimate prose, Andy Dunn fearlessly shines a light on the dark side of success and challenges us all to take part in the deepening conversation around creativity, performance, and disorder.

So enlightening

This book spoke to me on multiple levels: as a business leader and as the daughter of an estranged late father who had Bipolar 1 as well. This fills so many gaps for me. Conversations I never had and questions I never got to ask. Thank you Andy Dunn for this gift.

Gives you a whole new perspective

The book was absolutely amazing and it really speaks to the ups and down that entrepreneurs and business owners go through and gives the team an insight see their bosses and executives in a different light.

A very important book

I am recommending this book to all my friends and family. We all need the education and the compassion. Thank you, Andy Dunn for sharing this with all of us.

Candid. Authentic. Moving

Andy is a bschool classmate . If truth be told, I didn't know him that well. Just finished his book which I couldn't stop listening to.

To say it was deeply meaningful would be an understatement. Because I know the ghost he speaks of. Experimenting with medication to cage mental illness, leaning on wise counsel, building a personal toolkit to mitigate fallout on relationships/work/health alongside a uniquely personal journey of self discovery, was viscerally familiar.

I am grateful to him for the courage and discipline it must have taken to pen his experiences down.

Highly highly recommend a read 👍🏽👍🏽

Brave and eye opening must read!

I’m grateful for the raw honesty of the author to provide a window into his struggle with mental health. It’s stories such as this one that can hopefully begin important conversations about ending mental illness stigma.

And don’t forget it’s a great story about building a company!