Ryan Breslow (@ryanbreslow)

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I can confirm. We did get rid of our HR team. Anyone who loves creating problems vs solving them has no place at a startup. Bolt is now operating once again as a startup and at Lightning Speed. Thank you Fortune for having me as your keynote speaker ⚡️

FORTUNE Verified account @FortuneMagazine May 19

"We got rid of our HR team.”

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow 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.

#FortuneWorkplaceSummit | bit.ly/3Rk2jkS

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Ryan Breslow @ryanbreslow Oct 6

We are now 100% self serve @bolt
And waiting for you to join @foundrceo
MCP support to integrate in hours
50%+ cheaper rates
Someone you can call
Get up and running right away

foundrceo Verified account @foundrceo Oct 5

Stripe can shut down your business in one email and then refuse to tell you what you actually did wrong.

That’s exactly what happened to us.

MacWall had:

• thousands successful payments
• ONE $3.99 chargeback
• real software + real customers

Then @Stripe suddenly closed our account for vague “business model risk.”

Since then:
• 5 days waiting
• 10+ emails
• multiple support chats
• full compliance + policy cleanup
• documents offered
• formal complaint submitted

And still no specific violation. No actionable explanation. No real answer.

Meanwhile payouts are frozen and legitimate customers are being refunded i am not asking Stripe to expose some secret fraud algorithm.

Just tell us what MacWall actually did wrong.

If we violated a policy, name the policy.
If something needs fixing, tell us what to fix.
If the risk system made a mistake, have a human review it.

A payments company this important should not be able to destroy a small business relationship with a vague sentence and then disappear.

@stripesupport @Stripe we need an actual answer.
Indie founders deserve better than this.
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Ryan Breslow @ryanbreslow Sep 24

2.9% + $0.30 sounds reasonable, right? But your actual number all-in: 7%.

7% seems to be the going-rate for allowing startups to operate. It’s the rate to get access to investors via an accelerator. It’s also become the rate to simply transact.

Here’s the math taken from a real-world example:

Real company example doing $250,000 / month with $25 average ticket size.

Card processing fees
- 2.9% = $7,250
- 30¢ × 10K charges = $3,000
- Intl/FX surcharges = $1,500
$11,750 all-in, 4.7% effective rate

Disputes: $3,000
200 a month (2% dispute rate) at $15
14% win rate so $4,300 more in revenue claws back

Billing/Subscriptions Platform Fee:
$1,750 (0.7% of every recurring charge)

Other:
$250

Total: $16,750/month.

That’s OVER $200,000 PER YEAR IN FEES.

Interchange is what every processor needs to pay their underlying bank and card networks. This is typically 2%.

So… the processor's profit margin: 71% (or 5% on an absolute basis)

Bolt's profit margin is only about 1% on an absolute basis. That’s an 80% reduction.
100% off of billing fees (it’s free)
100% of fees returned on refunds
66.6% off of chargeback fees
~60% off of the payment margin.

Ready to switch? Message me now: ryan@boltapp(dot)com

Ryan Breslow @ryanbreslow Sep 21

Please give our MCP connector a try.
Send me any feedback that have.
You can now integrate bolt in a flash!

Bolt Verified account @bolt Sep 21

Bolt's MCP connector is live.

Full docs, implementation support, and test plans are live today. Point your coding agent at help.bolt.com (see the AI tab) and watch how far it gets.

More features coming over the next few weeks.

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Ryan Breslow @ryanbreslow Sep 17

I am thrilled to share that we've promoted @HaydenMcternan to @Bolt's VP of Sales. Many Bolters will recognize his name as Hayden was one of our pivotal AEs who took us from $1m to $40m ARR. Hayden left upon my departure and rejoined on my return. Perhaps the best sales leader I've worked with, he is a warrior, hyper-intelligent, and able to find the win-win in every deal. Bolt will be a powerhouse once again under his leadership ⚡️💪

Anyone ready for a lower-cost, higher-converting, and founder-first payments partner, shoot him a note right now! hmcternan@boltapp [dot] com

Ryan Breslow

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