Andy Dunn
Founder & CEO, Pie. On 3 shows, 6 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorauthorhost@dunn ↗burnratebook.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Andy Dunn is the co-founder and former CEO of Bonobos, which was acquired by Walmart in 2017, and an early-stage investor through Red Swan Ventures. He authored the memoir Burn Rate and currently leads the social app Pie.
3shows
6appearances
85statements
17resolved
10supported
2contradicted
59%fully supported
8said about them ↓ Everything Andy Dunn said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Andy Dunn was arrested for assault during a 2016 manic episode
“And I was arrested for felony and misdemeanor assault of my now wife and mother-in-law who were Trying to keep me from running into the street naked out of my apartment on ninth street.”
Dunn: The venture capital system is fundamentally misogynistically wired
“So we have a mismatch where men who don't understand women or how women shop are trying to decide how to make investments, and only nine percent of VCs are women. So it's a fundamentally misogynistically wired system.”
Dunn: Venture capital is a fundamentally misogynistically wired system
“So we have a mismatch where men who don't understand women or how women shop are trying to decide how to make investments, and only nine percent of VCs are women. So it's a fundamentally misogynistically wired system.”
Dunn: 90% of Chicago VC alpha and funding comes from the coasts
“90% of the alpha for Chicago-based venture firms is created on the coasts, right? And 90% of the capital that the leading Chicago companies raise is from the coasts.”
Dunn pitched 15 Chicago VCs and got rejected before Forerunner term sheet
“I did 15 pitches in Chicago, because I wanted to raise our Series A from a Chicago venture fund. I got 15 no's. I did one pitch on the West Coast with Kirsten Green from Forerunner, and we got a term sheet within 48 hours.”
Dunn predicts Pie will be the next great American social network
“Look, I think there's room for the next great American rooted social network right now. And I believe three things about it. Number one, it's going to be AI native. Number two, it's going to be focused on actual friends and your IRL local life. You're in real …”
Andy Dunn: DTC apparel is an impossible business model due to CAC
“I spent 13 years building something that I think in retrospect is an impossible business model, which is DTC apparel. Like, I don't actually think it works. Like, the math doesn't work on it, because it's too expensive to acquire, acquire customers, right?”
Dunn: Investment capital is flowing to profitable wholesale brands, not DTC
“All the money is going into profitable wholesale led brands now, not into DTC brands.”
Andy Dunn: Would not raise venture capital if building Bonobos again
“No, I w I wouldn't have done it.
If I could go back, I think there's so many
Problems with raising money.”
Andy Dunn: DTC brands should scale into wholesale and raise under $20M
“And I feel like that's the new playbook in DTC is get the brand to scale in DTC. Open up wholesale relationships, thoughtfully, strategically, perhaps some brick and mortar, and raise less than twenty million dollars, certainly at the high end.”
Dunn: Corporations are the only viable funding source for mental healthcare
“We know that psychiatrists and therapists are not going to voluntarily reduce their rates.
We know they're not going to voluntarily join and affiliate with insurance companies that takes down their after tax.
And we know that insurance companies aren't going t…”
Bonobos' retail stores and Nordstrom wholesale profits funded its e-commerce losses
“And our second most profitable were our retail stores, and those two businesses' profits were funding losses from the e-commerce business, which is a wonderful paradox to the way that we conceived of the company.”
E-commerce platforms will vertically integrate proprietary brands just like Netflix
“The future of e-commerce was gonna look a little bit like the history of Netflix. That a platform that was streaming other people's content and distributing other people's content would vertically integrate and start to develop their own proprietary content.”
Dunn: Founding a business with friends destroys the friendship's emotional support
“Once you get into a business partnership with a friend, the friendship gets totally sublimated to the business partnership. So a lot of the stuff that you used to talk about or do, you don't have time to do because you've got to work on this little growing bab…”
Dunn: Bonobos' physical retail and wholesale channels ultimately funded e-commerce losses
“Our most profitable business became Nordstrom. And our second most profitable were our retail stores, and those two businesses' profits were funding losses from the e-commerce business, which is a wonderful paradox to the way that we conceived of the company.”
Dunn: Zero-inventory clothing stores generate higher retail sales per square foot
“You create a clothing store that has no clothing. And that was the insight, which is the customer doesn't need it right away, and that flew in the face of everything everyone in retail told me from the traditional industry. Instant gratification. And it turns …”
Dunn: Local social apps need 1,000 users and 50 events per market
“We think you need about a thousand people on that people tab, about 50 events on the events tab, and that's when we start to see percolation and social density and geographic density start to get momentum.”
Dunn: Ecosystems need a $50B+ anchor company to create angel networks
“You gotta build a hundred billion dollar, or at least a fifty billion dollar company, To create that ecosystem of angels, and to create a training ground for the entrepreneurs of, you know, the next decade in Chicago.”
Dunn: Getting off phones requires using phones and top social influencers
“Because the only way to get off these phones is through our phones. The people that were influential in hooking us on social media are very well positioned to say, guys, let's get out.”
Andy Dunn: Giving equity to celebrity influencers beats Instagram ads
“And if I could go back and do bonobos again, I wish I understood how much better it is to dilute your brand by giving the equity to someone like that than running Instagram ads.”
Dunn: Realistic Valuations in Downturns Benefit Founders Long-Term
“And by the way, the valuations get more realistic too. And I think that's a good thing for entrepreneurs in the long run, although they don't view it as such in real time.”
Dunn: Mood disorders affect approximately one in five entrepreneurs
“Three percent of the general population has some form of mood disorder, most commonly bipolar disorder. We think that index is seven to one in entrepreneurs. So we'd be talking about one in five”
Being an employee is often harder than being a startup CEO
“And I have to say, it is such a profoundly humbling, meaningful, good, And challenging, sometimes maddening experience to realize that all these years you were, you know, woe is me, being a CEO is so hard, and it actually turns out that being an employee in a …”
The other half of the tape: Andy Dunn's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 8 times in 6 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 7Joel Clark 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 8
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2020 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Andy's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Pie | 4 | 62 | 70% 7/10 | full record on How I Built This → |
 TBPNLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Pie | 1 | 13 | 33% 1/3 | full record on TBPN → |
 STARTUP IDEASLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Pie | 1 | 10 | 50% 2/4 | full record on the Startup Ideas Podcast → |