Andy Dunn

Last updated
Andy Dunn
Born (1979-02-20) February 20, 1979 (age 45)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known for e-commerce, consumer internet, venture capital

Andy Dunn (born February 20, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of Bonobos Inc. [1] Dunn was CEO for eleven years after co-founding Bonobos in 2007. [2] In June 2017, Walmart announced it was purchasing Bonobos for $310 million in cash. [3] [4] Dunn joined Walmart after the purchase to lead the company's collection of direct-to-consumer brands. [5]

Contents

Career

Early years

Dunn was a consultant for Bain & Company in the US and Latin America following college. His time at Bain included consulting for catalog-based retailer Lands’ End, which was inspiration for the direct-to-consumer business and customer service model of Bonobos. [6]

Bonobos

Started by Stanford graduate students Andy Dunn and Brian Spaly, Bonobos was created with the goal to provide men with better-fitting men's pants and a better shopping experience by building the brand on the internet. [7] The company launched with pants that eliminate "Khaki Diaper Butt” [8] and now offers a full line of menswear, [9] including shirts and suits. [10] Bonobos pioneered the internet-driven direct to consumer (DTC), [11] or digitally native vertical brand (DNVB), retail model. [12] [13] The company launched online and was exclusive online for the first few years. It was the first American brand to use the web as the primary means of story-telling, service, commerce and distribution. The innovation led to the birth of an ecosystem, largely based in New York City, of DTC brands, including Warby Parker, Harry's, Glossier, Allbirds, and Away. Core to the idea of DTC brands is bundling product and service together to drive a higher NPS customer experience than legacy brick-and-mortar driven competition can deliver. To deliver the experience, Bonobos created a customer service team in 2008, the Ninjas, located at the Manhattan headquarters of the company. The Ninjas became a key part of the Bonobos experience in serving customers. [14]

Guideshops

In 2011, the company invented a new retail model: apparel stores as fit-to-ship showrooms. [15]

Red Swan

In 2011 Dunn cofounded the angel investment firm, Red Swan, [16] which is focused on investing in consumer retail and consumer internet companies. [17]

Personal life

Dunn grew up in Chicago [18] alongside his sister, Monica Royer, founder of Monica + Andy. [19] [20] His mom, Usha Ahuja Dunn, is an immigrant from India and his father, Charles Dunn, is the author of The Nurse and the Navigator, a World War II memoir of the wartime romance of his parents. [21]

In 2017, Dunn married Manuela Zoninsein, a Brazilian immigrant and sustainability entrepreneur. Dunn and Zoninsein live in Chicago. [22]

In 2022, Dunn went public with his battle with bipolar disorder, describing it in his autobiography Burn Rate and in public talks, discussing how he was diagnosed with it in college after a manic episode, and how he hid it during his startup years, despite incidents including hospitalization at Bellevue Hospital in 2016, [23] after which he was arrested for "stripping naked in the throes of mania and assaulting his then girlfriend and elderly mother-in-law" [24] In a Ted talk in 2023 he discussed it further.

Awards and recognition

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References

  1. ↑ unknown (9 February 2012). "Meet Andy Dunn". Men's Health. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  2. ↑ ALEXEI KANSARA, VIKRAM (19 July 2013). "Andy Dunn of Bonobos on Building the Armani of the E-Commerce Era". Business of Fashion. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Walmart Just Paid Big Money to Buy a Major Menswear Brand". GQ. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  4. ↑ Merced, Michael J. de la (2017-06-16). "Walmart to Buy Bonobos, Men's Wear Company, for $310 Million". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  5. ↑ Valinsky, Jordan (2017-06-16). "Walmart is buying Bonobos for $310 million". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
  6. ↑ "Live Chat: Andy Dunn". Inc.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  7. ↑ Abbott, Kate. "B-School Startups: Bonobos Provides a Tailored Fit". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  8. ↑ Cain Miller, Claire (26 November 2009). "On a Mission to Banish the Saggy Bottom". New York Times. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Lipke, David (29 September 2011). "Bonobos Grows With Denim and Shirt Lines". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  10. ↑ Lipke, David (19 March 2013). "Bonobos Takes Swing at Golf". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  11. ↑ "We Analyzed 12 Of The Biggest Direct-to-Consumer Success Stories To Figure Out The Secrets To Their Growth — Here's What We Learned". CB Insights Research. 2019-02-06. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  12. ↑ "How Bonobos became the 'DNVB college'". Retail Dive. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  13. ↑ "What is a DNVB? These digitally native vertical brands are pushing e-commerce innovation". Digital Commerce 360. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  14. ↑ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (2010-04-07). "In the Search for a Hot Job Title, Enter the Ninja". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  15. ↑ Petro, Greg. "Bonobos And Dollar Shave Club: Online-Only Brands Get Physical". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  16. ↑ Unknown. "Company Overview of Bonobos, Inc". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on July 21, 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  17. ↑ "Andy Dunn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  18. ↑ Flint, Jared. "The Gilt Man Q&A: Andy Dunn of Bonobos". GiltMANual. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  19. ↑ "Andy Dunn - The Founder of Bonobos on Building a Solid Team". October 23, 2017.
  20. ↑ Strugatz, Rachel (2017-06-21). "Andy Dunn, Sister Monica Royer Grow Children's Biz Monica + Andy". WWD. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  21. ↑ Charles Dunn, 3rd (2017-09-19). The Nurse and the Navigator. ISBN   978-1946022219.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "BURN RATE: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind". Burn Rate. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  23. ↑ Dunn, Andy. "How I served as CEO of Bonobos while secretly losing my mind". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  24. ↑ "The founder of startup Bonobos hid a bipolar diagnosis for decades. Now he’s on a mission to destigmatize mental health at work", Fortune
  25. ↑ Pasquarelli, Adrianne. "40 Under Forty". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  26. ↑ "Sumaiya Balbale and Andy Dunn". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  27. ↑ Klich, Tanya Benedicto (2014-06-20). "The Hot 30 Movers and Shakers of New York City's Startup Scene". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  28. ↑ Robinson, Melissa Stanger, Melia. "The Sexiest CEOs Alive!". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-08-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ "INTRODUCING: The 100 people transforming the world of business". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
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