According to reports from Fortune and peoplematters.in, Ryan Breslow, CEO of fintech company Bolt, eliminated the company's entire HR team during his return to leadership in 2025. Speaking at Fortune's Workforce Innovation Summit on 19 May, Breslow stated that the HR team was creating problems that didn't exist and that these issues disappeared when he let them go. The 31-year-old executive defended both the removal of Bolt's HR function and recent layoffs affecting roughly 30% of the company's workforce. Breslow argued that traditional HR structures were better suited to larger, more stable companies rather than startups attempting rapid operational recovery, stating that "HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach" while describing people operations as a structure that empowers managers and streamlines decisions. Breslow himself believes that traditional HR is a structure for large, stable corporations, not for a startup trying to survive after a downturn.
As reported by Fortune, Bolt experienced a severe financial decline following Breslow's departure as CEO in 2024. The company's valuation collapsed from an $11 billion peak in 2022 to approximately $300 million by 2024, representing a decline of nearly 97% from its peak. Bolt was founded by Breslow in 2014 while he was a student at Stanford University and rose rapidly during the fintech boom, reaching a reported valuation of $11 billion in 2022 when it employed thousands of workers and positioned itself as a major player in online checkout and digital payments infrastructure. However, the company's fortunes reversed sharply after Breslow stepped down as CEO, with the company implementing several rounds of layoffs that significantly reduced headcount.
According to Fortune and peoplematters.in, when Breslow returned as CEO in 2025, he gave existing employees 60 days to adapt to a leaner startup-style working culture. Breslow claimed that 99% of employees failed to adapt, leading to the replacement of nearly the entire leadership team from scratch. The CEO said there was "a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company" and that many employees "weren't actually working hard," adding that most of those workers "had to be let go." Bolt has since abandoned several progressive workplace policies, including four-day workweeks and unlimited paid time off, and replaced the former HR setup with a smaller people operations team responsible for training and employee support functions. The company's recent layoffs in April affected fewer than 40 staff as part of efforts to make the business "leaner and more AI-centric," according to internal messages reported by The Times.
As reported by Fortune and peoplematters.in, Bolt currently operates with approximately 100 employees, representing a quarter of its previous size and making up largely of more junior employees who Breslow believes are working harder and responding faster to customer needs. The CEO claimed that customers had recently told the company they were receiving the strongest level of attention in years. Bolt now markets itself as a "One SuperApp to rule them all," offering services including sending money, earning rewards, and trading cryptocurrency. Breslow described the company's current phase as operating in "wartime" and said the company needed teams focused heavily on execution and faster decision-making. The fintech firm has also faced recent scrutiny following rumours that contractors went unpaid and employee wages had been withheld, though Breslow denied these allegations during the Fortune event.
Bolt's HR elimination reflects a broader trend of companies linking workforce reductions to AI investment and automation. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, more than 50,000 tech jobs have already been cut in 2026, with AI increasingly cited as a contributing factor. Major financial institutions are following similar patterns, with Standard Chartered announcing plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs by 2030 as it automates operations, while HSBC boss Georges Elhedery told staff that generative AI would "destroy certain jobs" while creating others. Meta is also conducting major restructuring centered around AI, with thousands of staff being reassigned into AI-focused divisions while redundancies continue across engineering and product teams. Companies including Amazon, Snap, Oracle and Block have all announced further reductions this year while simultaneously increasing spending on AI infrastructure and automation.
