Pinky Cole Hayes stared death in the face at 70 mph when a mattress crashed into her windshield on an Atlanta highway this year. For the 37-year-old founder of Slutty Vegan, this wasn’t just any accident — it was a cosmic interruption that forced her to hit pause during the most challenging chapter of her entrepreneurial saga.
The timing couldn’t have been more metaphorical. Cole had just watched her vegan fast-food empire slip through her fingers despite its cult-like following and block-wrapping lines. With corporate overhead ballooning to a staggering $10 million, the math simply didn’t work anymore.
The plant-based burger maven who had built a $100 million valuation found herself making the unthinkable decision to surrender control of her beloved brand through a February 2025 restructuring.
“I could have easily gone to social media and did a rally cry for help, but I didn’t want to be a victim,” Cole revealed in an exclusive interview with People about her choice to face the music privately.
Her relationship with failure isn’t new—it’s practically a recurring character in her story.
After losing her first Harlem restaurant to flames in 2016, watching her car get repossessed, and being evicted from her apartment shortly after, Cole has earned what she calls her “expert at failing” credentials the hard way.
Where others might see a career obituary, Cole saw a plot twist. She strategically maneuvered behind the scenes, hired fresh leadership talent, and by March 28, had orchestrated a comeback by repurchasing her company under the cinematically inspired name “Ain’t Nobody Coming to See You, Otis LLC.”
In an interview with Forbes, the Clark Atlanta University alum said, “So, I actually lost Slutty Vegan. And I just bought it back. And to say that makes me very emotional. Because for the past year and a half, as a founder, I have dealt with the toughest experience of my life.”
When asked how did this happen, she continued, “Cash-flow issues. I could not raise any more capital to continue to grow.”
The other challenge is that of having a brick-and-mortar business in 2025.
“In 2023, my corporate overhead was $10 million dollars. I was profitable at the unit level. I did double-digit millions last year in revenue,” she said, before adding, “But when you look at my balance sheet there’s a lot of debt there. And because the market is so volatile, people really don’t want to just expend their money in situations like this. I’ve been fighting for my company for a whole year.”
The move signals her upcoming “Slutty Vegan 2.0” reinvention, which she promises will maintain the brand’s provocative DNA while implementing crucial operational changes.
The vegan food disruptor currently maintains eight locations spanning Georgia (five spots), Alabama, Maryland, and New York, having contracted from previous expansion efforts. Not one to think small, Cole is already plotting a global takeover with Dubai and Africa on her vision board, alongside new franchise opportunities for investors hungry to join the Slutty Vegan phenomenon.
Cole’s ambitions extend beyond her flagship brand to include Bar Vegan, her cocktail and tapas concept.
She’s also plotting a hospitality empire with husband Derrick Hayes, owner of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, through their forthcoming Hayes Hospitality Group joint venture.
The road to redemption isn’t without its speed bumps. Cole faces legal headwinds from two separate wage-related lawsuits.
The most recent, filed by three former Brooklyn location employees, alleges overtime payment failures, bonus disputes, and paycheck discrepancies. This follows an earlier suit from a Bar Vegan employee claiming the establishment paid just $2.13 hourly while commandeering a quarter of staff tips.
Despite these challenges, Cole’s collaborative instincts have yielded fruitful partnerships. She’s co-created limited-edition vegan burgers with Shake Shack, developed plant-based funnel cakes with reality star Angela Simmons, launched a vegan lipstick collection called “Nasty Girl” with Black-owned beauty brand Lip Bar, and designed vegan footwear with Steve Madden.
For an entrepreneur who closed a $25 million Series A round not long ago, Cole’s journey illustrates the vertigo-inducing highs and lows of scaling a buzzy food concept. While her previous expansion plans targeted 20 U.S. locations by late 2023, today’s vision is more measured but perhaps more sustainable.
As Cole navigates her double recovery — from both physical trauma and business restructuring — she carries a hard-won wisdom, “People love Slutty Vegan because they love me and I used to not tap into that, but I now know I have a superpower with people.”
With her business back in hand and a renewed focus on what truly matters, Cole’s most valuable asset may be her rediscovered perspective, “I have a newfound perspective on the things that I prioritize now after that accident.”
The transparency is beautiful. A true Alchemist transmuting perceived failure to the very path ahead.