Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow has defended his controversial decision to eliminate the company’s entire HR department, arguing that the team had been “creating problems that didn’t exist.”
The remarks came after the US fintech company carried out another major round of layoffs as part of efforts to streamline operations and return the business to what Breslow described as “start-up mode.”
Bolt cut roughly 30 per cent of its workforce in April, marking its fourth wave of layoffs in four years. Speaking at a Fortune event, Breslow said the move included scrapping the HR division altogether.
“We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn’t exist,” he said. “Those problems disappeared when I let them go.”
The 32-year-old executive argued that traditional HR functions are better suited to large corporations operating in “peacetime” conditions, rather than fast-moving start-ups focused on efficiency and rapid execution.
Bolt has since introduced a smaller “people operations” unit tasked with employee support and training. Breslow said the company now needs workers who are focused on delivering results rather than fostering internal complaints.
“We need a group of people who are very oriented around getting things done,” he said. “There is just a culture of not getting things done and complaining a lot.”
Breslow stepped down from Bolt in 2022 before returning in 2025 in an effort to turn the company around. Since his return, he said he has been battling what he described as a growing culture of “entitlement” within the business.
“There’s a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company,” he said, adding that some staff no longer wanted to work under the leaner conditions required after the company’s downturn.
“People who felt empowered, felt entitled — but weren’t actually working hard,” he continued. “Ultimately, most of those people just had to be let go.”
Bolt said fewer than 40 employees were affected by the latest cuts, which the company said were partly influenced by the growing role of artificial intelligence in its operations.
In a Slack message reportedly sent to staff in April, Breslow wrote that developing products in 2026 required companies to become “leaner and more AI-centric than ever” in order to remain competitive.
