Bolt CEO Says Eliminating HR Team Removed Unnecessary Problems

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow said the company’s HR team had created problems that did not exist and that those problems ended after the team was dismissed. He made the comments at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit last week. The statements followed a roughly 30 percent workforce reduction at the fintech startup one month earlier.

Reports also circulated that some employees received equity instead of salary and that certain contractors went unpaid. Breslow denied those reports.

After the summit, Bolt’s team directed attention to a LinkedIn post stating the company is hiring HR leaders in Estonia and Hungary. Breslow declined to provide further details during the event.

The summit also covered AI’s potential effect on work hours and workplace culture topics such as four-day workweeks and pay transparency. One McKinsey partner stated that AI could reshape up to 50 percent of work hours within five years.