Pinky Cole is taking back what’s rightfully hers.
In a recent interview with People Magazine, Pinky Cole, the CEO and Founder of Slutty Vegan, opened up about the moment she lost her business and the road to taking it back.
“Our corporate overhead was about $10 million,” Cole told the outlet. “I was chasing something I couldn’t catch for so many reasons.”
Though she knew Slutty Vegan was special and connected to a large community, the fast-food chain’s corporate spending was too much for the avid entrepreneur to catch up with.
“That was a situation where something is just too far gone,” she said.
Cole also admitted that she wasn’t “the operational person” for her business and had people in place to run it from a business perspective.
However, when the walls came tumbling down, she learned that you can never take your hands off the wheel.
So, after a life-threatening accident that she told People was like “Final Destination,” she decided to take a step back and reevaluate her business model.
“In life, we always worry about the things that really don’t matter until your life is on the line,” she explained. “I have a newfound perspective on the things that I prioritize now after that accident.”
“I mean God was literally telling me to rest so he threw a d*** bed on me,” she joked.
After that, Cole—who shares kids D’Ella, 3, Derrick Jr., 2, and David, 1, with her husband, Derrick Hayes, CEO and founder of Dave’s Cheesesteaks—decided to put Slutty Vegan through a restructuring process, which ultimately forced her to relinquish control and ownership of the company.
“The best thing you could do is let it die so that you can rebirth it,” she told People.
Cole admitted that she was fearful of the change, cringing at the idea of having to face the “opinions of others.” She said she constantly thought about confessing her struggles on social media but didn’t want to be “a victim.”
Instead, she worked with a headhunter to find new leadership for her company. On March 28, 2025, Cole bought back Slutty Vegan for an undisclosed amount under the name “Ain’t Nobody Coming to See You, Otis LLC,” a popular quote from the 1998 film The Temptations.
“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,” the proud entrepreneur said. “People love me, so I know that people are going to support and back me in whatever it is that I authentically do.”
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Slutty Vegan 2.0, as Cole cleverly calls it, aims to hyper-scale the food chain in the way she always intended.
“Global expansion is big for 2.0.” she revealed. “We’ve been talking about Dubai and Africa and just really scaling Slutty Vegan beyond the U.S. There’s some great opportunities for other people to get invested in the brand by way of having their own Slutty Vegan, which I’ll be able to share [more about] that in the future.”
Currently, Slutty Vegan has eight locations — five in Georgia, one in Alabama, Maryland, and another in New York. The company previously had two additional locations in New York, another in Texas, and another through contracts with Georgia Tech and Spelman University, which were all closed during the restructuring.
Besides the fast-food chain, Cole owns the brand’s spinoff operation, Bar Vegan, which she is looking forward to expanding even further into the hospitality space alongside her husband.
“The Hayes Hospitality Group, that’s coming soon. The goal is to build this big food empire,” she said.
“I just want to sit back and watch all of the great brands that I build and create, be successful.”
