Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow on the Limited Role of HR in Startups

Bolt Co-Founder Ryan Breslow on the Company's Downfall and Resurgence

Ryan Breslow, the co-founder of fintech company Bolt, spoke at Fortune's Workforce Innovation Summit on May 19 about the company's dramatic collapse and subsequent resurgence. Breslow, who returned as CEO in 2025, described his approach as operating in "wartime" as he attempts to steer the company towards survival.

Bolt was founded in 2014 by Breslow and his team from a Stanford dorm room. The company soared to an $11 billion valuation in 2022, employing thousands of workers at its height. However, fortunes reversed sharply soon after, with Breslow stepping down as CEO in 2022. By 2024, Bolt's valuation had reportedly collapsed to around $300 million, representing a decline of nearly 97% from its peak.

The company's decline was marked by multiple rounds of layoffs, dramatically reducing its headcount. Breslow attributed the collapse to poor decision-making and excessive spending. In an effort to steer the company back on track, Breslow eliminated the company's HR team entirely, citing that they were creating unnecessary problems.

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After eliminating the HR team, Breslow brought in a smaller people operations team as a replacement. He argued that HR represented "the wrong energy, format, and approach," while people operations empower managers and keep companies moving faster.

Breslow identified a deeper cultural problem within Bolt, citing that employees had grown too comfortable during the company's boom years. A sense of entitlement had spread across the organization, he argued, with workers feeling empowered but not actually delivering results. When he returned as CEO, he gave existing employees 60 days to adapt to a leaner, startup-style working culture. The result was stark: 99% could not make the shift.

The cultural reset required abandoning several progressive workplace policies, including four-day workweeks and unlimited paid time off. Breslow argued that the painful strategy is delivering results, with the company now marketing itself as a one-stop financial super app. It allows users to send money, earn rewards, and trade cryptocurrency.

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Breslow credited a smaller, harder-working team with the company's renewed momentum, acknowledging that experienced, credentialed professionals were no longer central to Bolt's model. "Our customers are telling us, 'We haven't had this type of attention in four years'," he said.