Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind
Book by Andy Dunn
DETAILS
Publisher : Currency (May 10, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 304 pages ISBN-10 : 0593238265 ISBN-13 : 978-0593238264 Item Weight : 14.4 ounces Dimensions : 5.79 x 1.08 x 8.59 inches Best Sellers Rank: #89,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #41 in Venture Capital (Books) #234 in Business Professional's Biographies #476 in Entrepreneurship (Books) , 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 ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022— Forbes 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. Read more
REVIEW
This book is about a subject I know quite a bit about, as if I were one of the characters in the book. So when I saw that Andy had written the book, I was intrigued yet skeptical. I don’t know Andy other than from his success in retail and digital commerce. I’ve heard him speak at NRF. I thought then that he seemed authentic and extremely respectful of women. I didn’t know at all what he had been through to get where he was. I half expected this book to be a story of success and redemption- sort of been there/fixed it/all gone. But it was way beyond that. It is honest, soul baring, insightful, and extremely descriptive in a very concise and well written way of what someone with mania goes through. It does have a happy ending (not a spoiler alert i trust ) but that happy ending comes with the caution and lessons learned. His blending of the details of his journey to create his company make this book all the more interesting. That story would be interesting in and of itself. He could have just told that story but instead he bared his soul and provided a much needed window into what it is like to manage a bipolar diagnosis in a contemporary setting. Bipolar disorder is not well understood. The term is misused. People casually use the term to explain daily moods. In reality it is a cruel trick that the mind plays on the body and all this happens right out in the open - in real life - which creates the dangers that Andy too experienced throughout his episodes. Our health care system not to mention our law enforcement system doesn’t understand the illness. People experiencing episodes are often treated like criminals and can’t always escape those penalties. Andy was extremely fortunate to be treated with compassion by the legal system. He acknowledges that. I highlighted tons of things in this books. Things that rang true and hit home. His description of how the mind works in a manic episode is incredibly accurate. His recollection of details is amazing. He describes the classic symptoms such as grandiosity, excessive energy and religiosity without being clinical. And I very much enjoyed the stories of the start-up funding process and the quest to create a fashion brand. He did what a lot of us only dream about. I sense he still has a lot of guilt about his co-founder and I hope he works through that because it seemed to turn out fairly for both. He did the hard work of getting the money and building the company. Both the fashion sense and merchandising know how from Spaley and Andy’s charm, energy and persuasion were essential. This book is important. It is helpful - especially to help bring this illness out into the open. There is so much more work to be done and I hope Andy continues to contribute to this mission. I hope he goes on a book tour to help bring the topic into our conversations. Meanwhile I applaud him for his honesty and his courage to share such a personal and humbling journey and I wish him all the best in his ongoing commitment to his health and his family. Thank you for sharing your story!
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