The CEO of US fintech Bolt has strongly defended his decision to fire the company's entire human resources department, telling a Fortune audience that the group “created problems that weren't there” and that those problems “disappeared” when he showed them the door.
Ryan Breslow, the 32-year-old co-founder who returned to his position last year after a three-year hiatus, insisted the move was important in his bid to drag his Silicon Valley darling back into “start-up mode”. The online payment software business laid off nearly 30 percent of its workforce in April, its fourth round of layoffs in as many years.
“We had an HR team, and the HR team was creating problems that didn't exist,” Breslow told the guests. “Those problems disappeared when I let them go.”
He argued that traditional HR professionals were better suited to the “quiet-time” rhythms of large, established businesses than to the bare-bones conditions of change. In their place, Bolt has installed a smaller “people operations” function, charged with staff training and day-to-day support rather than policy making.
“We need a group of people who are very committed to getting things done,” Breslow said. “There is just a culture of not doing things and complaining a lot.”
The remarks come at a critical time for the company. Bolt's value has dropped from $11 billion at the height of the fintech boom in 2022 to just $300 million, according to The Information, a humble reset for a business that was once the future of one-click commerce.
Breslow, who left the CEO's office in 2022 before returning in 2025, has made no secret of his view that legacy workers have grown old at big business.
“There's a sense of entitlement that permeates the entire company,” he said. “People who felt powerful, they felt entitled – but they weren't actually working hard. And this was the first thing I had to fight against. In the end, most of those people had to be let go.”
Bolt confirmed that less than 40 employees were affected by the latest action, which he said was due to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. In a company-wide Slack message in April, Breslow reportedly told employees: “Developing products and operations in 2026 is very different than in years past, and we need to adapt as an organization to be leaner and more AI-focused than ever to keep up with the competition.”
The comments echo a broader trend across the technology sector, with employers from Meta to Microsoft using AI investments as cover for mass layoffs. Recent CIPD research suggests that one in six UK employers now expect AI to eliminate jobs within the next 12 months, with white-collar roles taking a heavy toll.
For far-sighted British small business founders, Breslow's teaching will evoke equal measures of admiration and discomfort. Few would deny that bloated middle tiers can fuel a company's growth rate, and the temptation to pull back on hard times is real. But UK employment law offers much less latitude than the democratic culture of the United States, and disseminating HR information carries reputational and legal risks.
Employment lawyers have long warned that unfair dismissal can be very expensive, especially for SMEs that don't have the budget to take out court claims. The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) continues to urge employers to follow a systematic, transparent process, which includes reasonable consultation and fair selection methods – to protect, in fact, often guided and monitored HR work.
Breslow's sweeping statement, that growth-stage businesses must operate leaner and faster in an AI-driven economy, is one that increasingly few in the City can argue with. The challenge for British founders is to translate that desire into a culture that delivers results without falling foul of employment law or employee morale. As the wave of AI-related layoffs sweeping the tech world has shown, the line between bold restructuring and reckless cost-cutting is easily crossed.
Whether Bolt's revolutionary, founder-led model can bring the business back to its former $11 billion valuation — or simply accelerate its slide — will be one of the defining fintech stories of the year. As reported by Fortune, Breslow reduced the number of people from 800 to about 100. For a man who once championed the worker-friendly four-day week, it's a stinging volte-face — and his remaining employees, as well as his investors, will be watching closely.
