Andy Dunn

Andy Dunn grew up in Chicago and attended Northwestern University before earning an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he developed many of the ideas that led to Bonobos. In 2007 he and co-founder Brian Spaly launched Bonobos as a direct-to-consumer menswear brand focused on better fitting trousers and a customer-centric digital shopping experience. The company was among the early digitally native brands that helped popularize the direct-to-consumer model in apparel. As Bonobos’ CEO, Dunn led the company through rapid product expansion, retail experiments (including the “Guideshop” concept of appointment-based fit consultations), and multiple funding rounds that positioned the brand as a high-growth ecommerce leader; these efforts culminated in Bonobos’ acquisition by Walmart in 2017, after which Dunn spent time working with Walmart on brand integration. During and after Bonobos, Dunn became an active investor and mentor, backing more than eighty startups across consumer, fintech, and marketplace categories, including well-known names such as Warby Parker and Coinbase. Beyond entrepreneurship and investing, Dunn has been public about his experiences with bipolar disorder and its intersection with the pressures of startup leadership; he has spoken and written about mental health for founders and executives and is reported to have written a memoir that examines entrepreneurship and mental illness. In recent years he has worked on new ventures (one early project referenced as “Whipped Cream,” a social app in beta) and served on several boards in the social-impact and consumer spaces. Dunn continues to be involved in community and social-impact efforts, serving on boards such as Monica + Andy and nonprofit organizations focused on social good and inclusion, while also advising early-stage companies through investing and operating roles in Chicago and beyond.