Andy Dunn says he spends less time stressing about work after becoming a parent.
That might sound counterintuitive: Enough working parents are so stressed from juggling multiple responsibilities that the U.S. Surgeon General issued a mental health advisory on the topic in August. But while raising a child has added a new set of daily challenges to his life, Dunn — the co-founder of apparel brand Bonobos and CEO of social app Pie — believes it’s also made him a more effective and calm workplace leader.
“Having a child helps keep things in perspective,” says Dunn, whose son Isaiah was born in 2020. Since then, Dunn says he’s found it easier to not obsess over every problem that arises at work. His calmer outlook helps him make better decisions faster, he says.
“When I was building Bonobos, it was the most important thing to me. It felt like life or death. It was the source of my identity [and] a source of great insecurity,” says Dunn. “Now, Pie is important to me, but it’s not as important to me as Isaiah. That hierarchy helps.”
Striking a healthier work-life balance, Dunn believes, helps him stay poised and focused on building Pie — which he launched in 2020 — into a successful follow-up to Bonobos, the men’s clothing company he launched in 2007 and sold to Walmart for $310 million in 2017. Pie, still in its early stages of growth, announced an $11.5 million Series A funding round in September.
The social startup has more than 180,000 monthly active users across three cities — Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin — where it aims to help users make friends at real-life events and meet-ups, according to a company spokesperson.
Avoiding unnecessary stress is of particular importance to Dunn. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 20, he suffered a psychotic break while growing Bonobos that nearly derailed his life and career in 2016. His focus on his family life helps him stay committed to his mental health, he says.
‘More efficient decision-making’
Being a parent doesn’t inherently make anyone’s life and career less stressful. But Dunn says he sometimes feels “stupid” getting stressed about a work-related decision, only to realize it “pales in comparison” to the daily decisions he and his wife make while raising their son.
“When I get home, I’m just reminded: This is more important,” he says.
Many working parents struggle to balance raising kids with full-time work — yet parents with happy and healthy connections with their kids tend to make better leaders than other people, University of Georgia psychologists found in January 2021.
“I’ve heard from other entrepreneurs that the easiest time to be an entrepreneur in their lives was when they were parents, because you have this built-in boundary of something else you have to concern yourself with. It creates perspective,” Dunn says. “I just get less emotional.”
Motherhood actively made Falon Fatemi, co-founder and CEO of streaming platform Fireside, better at making decisions at work, she wrote for Fast Company in March 2024.
“Complex business dilemmas, once requiring weeks of contemplation, were swiftly resolved,” wrote Fatemi. “Balancing motherhood and business focused me on essentials, streamlining operations for greater efficiency.”
The ability to consistently make clear and efficient decisions — without waffling or dragging out the process — is a common trait among successful leaders, leadership expert Scott Mautz wrote for CNBC Make It in June.
“Emotion, bias and undisciplined thinking are all enemies of good decision-making,” wrote Mautz.
Becoming a parent helped Dunn access those traits more effectively, helping him avoid fixating unhealthily on his workplace’s most complex issues, he says.
“A lot of passion is required [to run a business],” says Dunn. “But objectivity — [and not] being overly empathetic — actually leads to more efficient decision-making, and ultimately better outcomes.”