“We got rid of our HR team.”
For most executives, that’s a sentence likely to provoke intense anxiety. But for Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, it was unavoidable.
Speaking at Fortune’s Workforce Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the 31-year-old defended sweeping workforce cuts at Bolt—including a recent layoff affecting roughly 30% of employees—as well as his decision to eliminate the company’s HR team.
“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.”
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/05/19/bolt-ceo-ryan-breslow-cut-hr-department-causing-problems-fintech-startup-turn-around/?utm_source=reddit/
Source: fortune
35 Comments
He’s not wrong – let him run his company.
If you don’t report the problems, then they don’t exist? I look forward to all the future workplace lawsuits.
Worked at a company without HR. There were problems, just nobody to report them to.
Bolt — a company that was once valued at $11 billion but has since witnessed a reversal of fortune, with its valuation falling to roughly $300 million.
All while he was the CEO….
I’m hesitant to believe that’s the slam-dunk solution he thinks it is.
If I remove myself from your field of view, I no longer exist. Im pretty sure the ability to know this isn’t true is a sign of conscious thought. Therefore the Bolt CEO lacks consciousness
It’s like magic!
Hes a disappointment to Ryan’s everywhere.
Lmao this is a great idea if you want to face a massive PR nightmare whenever someone inevitably starts doing unethical things at work and it blows up. HR helps insulate the company and without that, it’s very easy in litigation for any competent plaintiff’s attorney to point out that there was functionally no place to report violations of workplace policy.
Omg. He says this out loud like he is so smart
This is the Michael Scott solution.
As of this year, HR has been removed at my company and replaced with AI HR. Everyone is running from pillar to post trying to resolve issues. Case in point: Hiring is A MESS now.
“HR said I can’t bang my secretary without disclosing it! Fired HR, now I bang as many of my employees as I want. Problem solved!”
That’s a major lawsuit waiting to happen.
Umm… HR exists to protect the company.
I don’t know a lot about this, but I’ll make some popcorn.
how Trumpian. “we stopped reporting the Covid case rates, so nobody got Covid.”
The problems didn’t disappear. He just no longer had anybody to tell him about them. I’m sorry, but this guy’s a fuckknuckle
This is the same as Trump not wanting to test for COVID
And it will be just as bad for his company as Trump’s COVID response was for this nation
Bolt seems appropriate. His employees should.
Women cause drama.
We fired our HR team, now we just have People Ops. Isn’t this just 3 HR people in a People Ops trenchcoat? Also, I puked a little when he described a full outlook inbox as “War Time”
HR works for the benefit of the company, not the employee. Sounds like he’s cutting his own throat, even, and especially, if he outsources HR or uses AI.
Let me guess, he tells employees point blank to adopt AI or pack their desk…. 🤣
Even if people are for some damn reason ok with him doing this, he fired a humongous percentage of his non-hr workers too lol this company has been an absolute mess for years
Lawyers hate this one trick…
HR is the double-edge sword. They’re a necessity in today’s workplace to navigate a company in following labor laws while ensuring the risk of litigation is minimized. I’ve not experienced being at a place of work where HR was overreaching its authority, so I’m a bit suspicious of Breslow’s reason behind his claim that they were creating problems. Maybe these so-called “problems” he’s claiming were his HR staff trying to enforce policies that follow the law. IT companies have their own doctrine about employees’ rights which I’m sure deviate from traditional companies that follow laws and regulations.
And he never elaborated as to “what problems” they were creating that didn’t exist.
Sounds like someone is wanting to get sued.
Meh 30 years in Corporate America and I could count the number of useful HR people I’ve encountered on one hand and probably wouldn’t need all five fingers. Maybe 3.
“I fired my legal team and my legal problems went away” type energy.
This video should serve as a reminder that you SHOULD apply for that role you don’t think you meet the qualifications for. Like most senior leaders, this guy is a moron. Even the way he communicates is so amateur, its hilarious.
Oh boy, I was like sure there is more context:
“After soaring to an $11 billion valuation in 2022, employing thousands of workers, Bolt’s fortunes reversed sharply. Breslow stepped down as CEO the same year, and by 2024, the company’s valuation had reportedly fallen to roughly $300 million—a decline of nearly 97%—while multiple rounds of layoffs dramatically reduced its headcount. Breslow attributed the downturn to poor decision-making and overspending”
And…
“In recent months, Bolt has been plagued by rumors that it was taking back employees’ paychecks and that some contractors went unpaid. In his conversation with Fortune on Tuesday, Breslow denied that Bolt withheld funds from the staff.”
He is 32 and he is a moron that crashed his own company with bad decisions and left as CEO. Now, ready to comeback to destroy what’s left. This company is gonna go down in flames…more than it has already. Prime “we have less crime be abuse we change why is a ‘crime’” energy.
I really wish she asked specifically what problems were there that went away. I think that detail could very well demonstrate how right or wrong his justification might have been.
Amen !