{"id":6708,"date":"2026-05-19T23:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:39:16","slug":"bolt-ceo-says-he-let-go-of-his-entire-hr-team-for-creating-problems-that-didnt-exist-those-problems-disappeared-when-i-let-them-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6708","title":{"rendered":"Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn\u2019t exist: \u2018Those problems disappeared when I let them go\u2019:"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

For most executives, that\u2019s a sentence likely to provoke intense anxiety. But for Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, it was unavoidable.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Fortune\u2019s Workforce Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the 31-year-old defended sweeping workforce cuts at Bolt\u2014including a recent layoff affecting roughly 30% of employees\u2014as well as his decision to eliminate the company\u2019s HR team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn\u2019t exist,\u201d Breslow told Fortune editorial director Kristin Stoller. \u201cThose problems disappeared when I let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move may sound drastic, but Breslow said it was a necessary step to resurrect the struggling fintech company he first cofounded in 2014 in his Stanford dorm room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After soaring to an $11 billion valuation in 2022, employing thousands of workers, Bolt\u2019s fortunes reversed sharply. Breslow stepped down as CEO the same year, and by 2024, the company\u2019s valuation had reportedly fallen to roughly $300 million\u2014a decline of nearly 97%\u2014while multiple rounds of layoffs dramatically reduced its headcount. Breslow attributed the downturn to poor decision-making and overspending.<\/p>\n

Breslow returned as CEO in 2025, operating in what he calls \u201cwartime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re back in startup mode again, and those HR professionals have really important insights when you\u2019re in a peacetime and when you\u2019re at a larger company,\u201d he said, adding that Bolt has since brought on a smaller people operations team to oversee required training and serve as a resource for employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Breslow didn\u2019t get into the specifics of the exact differences, he wrote on LinkedIn last year that, \u201cHR is the wrong energy, format, and approach. People ops empowers managers, streamlines decision making, and keeps the company moving at lightning speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d he added at the Fortune conference.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Bolt has been plagued by rumors that it was taking back employees\u2019 paychecks and that some contractors went unpaid. In his conversation with Fortune on Tuesday, Breslow denied that Bolt withheld funds from the staff.<\/p>\n

Bolt employees developed a sense of \u2018entitlement\u2019 and weren\u2019t working hard\u2014so he let most of them go<\/p>\n

Beyond HR, Breslow said Bolt had fallen into a broader productivity slump, with employees growing too comfortable during the company\u2019s boom years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company, and people who felt empowered, felt entitled\u2014 but weren\u2019t actually working hard. And this is the number one thing that I had to battle,\u201d Breslo said. \u201cUltimately, most of those people just had to be let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he returned as CEO, he said he gave employees who had been hired under the prior leadership structure 60 days to adapt to a leaner, startup-style culture. But the result was that \u201c99%\u201d couldn\u2019t adapt, and Breslow eventually got rid of nearly the entire leadership team and started from scratch.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had gotten used to working at a company where they didn\u2019t have to get their hands dirty, and could spend a lot of money, and we just didn\u2019t have that money to spend anymore, and we didn\u2019t have that luxury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The shift, he added, required abandoning some of the leadership ideals he had previously embraced. This included eliminating four-day workweeks and unlimited PTO.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who was a pioneer of conscious leadership,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to bring a company back to a very gritty place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Breslow argued that the strategy is paying off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bolt currently markets itself as the \u201cOne SuperApp to rule them all\u201d\u2014a one-stop shop for sending money, earning rewards, and trading cryptocurrency\u2014and has slimmed down to roughly 100 employees. According to Breslow, the company is succeeding without what he described as \u201cbig credentialed, pedigreed professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a team a quarter of the size, who are much more junior, who work a lot harder, who have better energy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd our customers are telling us, \u2018We haven\u2019t had this type of attention in four years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

#Bolt #CEO #entire #team #creating #problems #didnt #exist #problems #disappeared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most executives, that\u2019s a sentence likely to provoke intense anxiety. But for Bolt CEO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[6804,585,960,2786,1918,12510,1197,11006,2014,7302,580,1680,12509,5393,937,1711,441,967],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}