{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Breaking Precedent","title":"The Breakdown: Andy Dunn on Building Bonobos, Battling Bipolar and Baking Pie [Replay]","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4319,"description":"What if the parts of us we try hardest to hide are actually where our strongest leadership begins?\nThis summer, Breaking Precedent is revisiting conversations that feel just as relevant now as when they were first recorded. In this episode, Bonobos co-founder, author, and Pie founder Andy Dunn joins Leah Solivan to talk about building something non-consensus, navigating identity, living with bipolar disorder, and finding meaning beyond achievement.\nAndy is best known for helping pioneer direct-to-consumer retail through Bonobos, which grew from a better-fitting men’s pants idea into a category-shaping brand. But what makes this conversation so powerful is not just the company-building story. It is Andy’s willingness to talk honestly about the unseen costs of ambition, the pressure to perform, and the danger of confusing success with wholeness.\nThe conversation explores growing up in a biracial household in suburban Chicago, learning to embrace difference, founding Bonobos at the dawn of digital retail, selling the company to Walmart, and writing Burn Rate, Andy’s memoir about entrepreneurship and bipolar disorder. Leah and Andy also discuss mental health stigma, the role of love and accountability in healing, the need for real-life community, and why his newest company, Pie, is focused on helping people build meaningful offline friendships.\nRelaunch Context\nThis conversation originally captured Andy in a new chapter after Bonobos and Burn Rate, as he was building Pie around the problem of loneliness and real-life connection. That mission has only become more timely. As of 2026, Andy is still actively building Pie in Chicago as a platform designed to bring people together in real life and combat social isolation. The replay is preserved because its larger themes of vulnerability, mental health, identity, community, and building against consensus remain central to the Breaking Precedent mission.\nTimestamps\n00:00 Why this conversation matters now\n00:49 Andy Dunn on...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/ZnB7esk3hxfFIoNnysnaXcdcNStXN6Vgj5GFpWxsycY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hZTZl/N2FhYTdlYjFlYjNj/MjZjZjU3MGMxYWM0/YWVlZC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}