Andy Dunn co-founded Red Swan Ventures as a founder-led seed investing platform that backs consumer-facing, digitally native brands, drawing on his experience building Bonobos rather than operating as a traditional institutional VC fund. He combines his operating playbook from Bonobos with authorship and speaking to provide founders with hands-on consumer brand expertise and access to a broader ecosystem spanning consumer, tech, and mission-driven organizations.

• Valuing extreme self-belief and persistent execution over abstract vision. He draws heavy parallels between elite sports performance and entrepreneurship, specifically comparing a successful founder's ability to repeatedly deliver results under pressure to quarterback Caleb Williams making high-leverage throws when the season is on the line.
• Appreciation for vulnerability, resilience, and the destigmatization of failure. Through his podcast Humble Pie, he actively seeks out stories where personal struggles become professional fuel, such as how a founder might turn a layoff into a thriving community or how disclosing mental health challenges can be a form of courage rather than weakness.
• Deep connection to the Chicago ecosystem and local pride. He actively champions Chicago as a prime location for startups and frequently utilizes local sports analogies, referencing the Chicago Bears or Michael Jordan, to contextualize leadership and excellence.
• Pragmatic view on the necessity of adapting to AI and technical demands. He advises that non-technical founders face a binary choice to either learn technical skills or become exceptionally proficient at leading without them, while also sharing his own hands-on experiences with tools like Claude and new AI apps.
• Interest in consumer-facing products with tangible impact or community angles. He highlights investments in sustainable initiatives like eliminating single-use plastics and shows enthusiasm for apps that build real-world community or solve clear user friction points.