Fintech startup Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow has publicly defended his decision to dismantle the company's entire human resources department, arguing that HR teams manufacture problems rather than resolve them. The remarks, made at Fortune's Workforce Innovation Summit, signal a deliberately unconventional approach to rebuilding a company that lost nearly 97% of its peak valuation.

What Breslow Said

Speaking in conversation with Fortune editorial director Kristin Stoller, the 31-year-old founder was blunt. 'We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn't exist,' Breslow said. 'Those problems disappeared when I let them go.'

He further criticised what he described as a pervasive culture of inaction within HR functions. '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.'

Bolt's Dramatic Rise and Fall

Founded in 2014, Bolt rode the pandemic-era tech boom to a peak valuation of $11 billion in 2022. That same year, Breslow stepped down as CEO. By 2024, the company's valuation had reportedly collapsed to approximately $300 million — a decline of nearly 97%. Breslow returned to the helm in 2025, describing the current phase as 'wartime' and signalling a more aggressive operational posture.

The Restructuring So Far

Earlier this year, Bolt laid off nearly 30% of its workforce before eliminating its HR division entirely. In place of a conventional HR structure, the company has introduced a leaner 'people operations' team focused on employee training and support. Breslow argues that traditional HR frameworks are designed for large, stable organisations — not startups competing at speed.

'We're back in startup mode again, and those HR professionals have really important insights when you're in a peacetime and when you're at a larger company,' he acknowledged, drawing a distinction between what he sees as appropriate contexts for HR and where Bolt currently stands.

The LinkedIn Post That Preceded It

Breslow's summit remarks were not his first public salvo against conventional HR. In a LinkedIn post earlier this year, he wrote that 'HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach,' adding that people operations teams help companies 'move at lightning speed' by empowering managers and streamlining decision-making. The post drew significant attention from the startup and HR communities alike.

What This Means for the Industry

Bolt's experiment arrives at a moment when the broader tech sector is reassessing the role of HR following years of over-hiring and subsequent mass layoffs. Critics argue that eliminating HR entirely leaves employees without a formal channel for grievances, particularly in a post-layoff environment where trust is already fragile. Breslow's model will be closely watched as a test case — whether lean people operations can substitute for structured HR without creating compliance or culture risks down the line.