For most executives, such a statement would likely spark major concern. But for Ryan Breslow, CEO of Bolt, the move was something he believed had to be done.
During an appearance at the Fortune Workforce Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the 31-year-old defended large-scale layoffs at Bolt, including a recent workforce reduction that affected nearly 30% of employees. He also stood by his decision to remove the company’s HR department.
“We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn’t exist,” Breslow told Fortune editorial director Kristin Stoller. “Those problems disappeared when I let them go.”
Breslow said the decision was part of a broader effort to revive the fintech company he cofounded in 2014 while attending Stanford University.
Bolt once reached a valuation of $11 billion in 2022 and employed thousands of workers. However, the company later experienced a steep decline. Breslow stepped down as CEO the same year, and by 2024, Bolt’s valuation had reportedly dropped to about $300 million. The company also carried out several rounds of layoffs as it downsized significantly. Breslow attributed the collapse to excessive spending and weak decision-making.
He returned as CEO in 2025 and described the company as being in “wartime.”
“We’re back in startup mode again, and those HR professionals have really important insights when you’re in a peacetime and when you’re at a larger company,” he said, adding that Bolt later created a smaller people operations team to handle mandatory training and employee support.
Although he did not explain the full distinction between HR and people operations, Breslow wrote on LinkedIn last year that, “HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach. People ops empowers managers, streamlines decision making, and keeps the company moving at lightning speed.”
“We need a group of people who are very oriented around getting things done, and there is just a culture of not getting things done and complaining a lot,” he added during the Fortune conference.
Bolt has also faced recent speculation that it reclaimed employee paychecks and failed to pay some contractors. Speaking at the event, Breslow denied claims that the company withheld employee payments.
Breslow says Bolt developed a culture of entitlement
Beyond HR changes, Breslow argued that Bolt had become less productive during its years of rapid expansion.
“There’s a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company, and people who felt empowered, felt entitled— but weren’t actually working hard. And this is the number one thing that I had to battle,” Breslo said. “Ultimately, most of those people just had to be let go.”
According to Breslow, employees hired under the previous leadership were given 60 days to adapt to a leaner startup-style environment after his return. However, he claimed that “99%” were unable to adjust, leading him to replace almost the entire leadership team and rebuild the company.
“They had gotten used to working at a company where they didn’t have to get their hands dirty, and could spend a lot of money, and we just didn’t have that money to spend anymore, and we didn’t have that luxury,” he said.
The turnaround also meant abandoning several workplace policies he once supported, including four-day workweeks and unlimited PTO.
“As someone who was a pioneer of conscious leadership,” he said. “I had to bring a company back to a very gritty place.”
Breslow now says the changes are producing results.
Bolt currently describes itself as the “One SuperApp to rule them all,” offering services that include money transfers, rewards programs, and cryptocurrency trading. The company has reduced its workforce to around 100 employees, and Breslow argued that the leaner structure has improved performance despite lacking what he described as “big credentialed, pedigreed professionals.”
“We have a team a quarter of the size, who are much more junior, who work a lot harder, who have better energy,” he said. “And our customers are telling us, ‘We haven’t had this type of attention in four years.’”
