The slutty vegan owner, Pinky Cole, has a new perspective after losing his business – and almost his life (exclusive)

• Pinky Cole Hayes was involved in a bizarre car accident in Atlanta where a mattress flew to her car windshield while driving 70 mi / h on the highway
• The accident occurred after the corporate owner lost his business of several million dollars, Slutty Vegan, due to exorbitant business expenses
• After buying his business, Pinky seeks to reorganize Slutty Vegan and rely in the host space

Pinky Cole Hayes thought of his master’s business plan when life forced him to slow down and reflect on his way.

During an exclusive interview with people at the beginning of the month, the owner of Vegan Slutty, 37, revealed that in the middle of all her commercial efforts, she experienced a potentially fatal car accident. While it was driving 70 mi / h on the motorway to Atlanta, a mattress flew away and broke the Pinky windshield. “It was like Final destination“She said.” I am not the person to get accidents, and I was not on the phone. I hadn’t sent sms.

The unique experience caused the restaurateur to go to the hospital and, reluctantly, take a break well necessary for his activities. “In life, we always worry about things that really don’t matter as long as your life is not at stake,” she said. “I have a new perspective on the things I prioritize now after this accident.”

Pinky, who shares the children of Ella, 3, Derrick Jr., 2 years old, and, David, 1, with her husband, the entrepreneur Derrick Hayes, believed that the bizarre accident was a bit of a message from God telling him to rest-“So he threw a bed of me,” she joked.

“Right now, I’m really in a place of peace, but I had a really rocky 2024,” she shared. After a few financial setbacks with Slutty Vegan, Pinky lost her business and needed to find a way to follow.

“Our general fees was around $ 10 million,” said Pinky. “I was continuing something that I couldn’t catch reasons.” Although she knew that the fast food chain was special and connected to a large audience – famous for constantly having a few hours waiting queues – the company’s expenses were too much for the entrepreneur to catch up, calling him “a situation where something is simply too far”, in which “the best thing you could do is let it die so that you can reject”.

She admitted that she “was not the operational person” and had people in place to manage the veganist slut from the point of view of companies, but learned that as a business owner, “you can never remove the hands of the steering wheel”.

On February 13, Pinky had to make the uncomfortable and difficult decision to put Slutty Vegan by a restructuring, which meant that it had to give up control and property of the company to a assignee. “I fought it for a long time, to be honest, and I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to face the public exam, “she said. “I didn’t want to face the opinions of others because I know that I built something that is so adopted by so many people. I could easily have gone to social networks and make a rally for help, but I didn’t want to be a victim. ”

Although his business looked like a failure on the surface, it is just the type of situation that Pinky encourages entrepreneurs to kiss and find inspiration in her book ironically entitled, I hope you fail. In the book, Pinky shares its ideologies on the flows and flows of life and how moments that resemble failures are elements of construction on the road to success.

“There will be a few laps on the left that you are going to do, you will do a few laps.” Someone will throw you a mattress – but that is not a sufficient reason to abandon. ”

After losing her first restaurant in a fat fire in 2016, then his car rests and was expelled from her apartment shortly after, she is called “an expert on failure”. Of course, resilience is what motivated Pinky’s path because she fought and won her business.

Pinky says that she went to “strategy fashion” to understand what her next movements would follow the restructuring of Slutty Vegan, which included the hiring of a head hunter to find a new leadership for the company. On March 28, 2025, the proud entrepreneur bought his business (for a non -disclosed number) under the name of “Ain’t Person who comes to see you, Otis LLC”, a deliberate use of the popular quote from the 1998 film The temptations.

“People love the veganist slut because they love me and I can’t draw from this, but I know (now) that I have a superpowered with people,” she explained. “People love me, so I know people will support me and support me in everything I do authentically.”

Currently, Slutty Vegan has eight locations – five in Georgia, one in Alabama, Maryland and another in New York. The chain previously had two additional locations in New York, another in Texas, and two others thanks to contracts with Georgia Tech and Spelman University, which have since been permanently or temporary. The last two were closed during restructuring.

Now Pinky focuses on what she calls “slutty vegan 2.0”, which, according to her, will have “new rules and new intentions”. The vegan slutty redesigned will have “the same essence but with a new flow”, as described by the owner of the company. “My last investors, they brought value to what they have brought value, but when you think about elevation and growth, I rose and grow with a new set of people and that I am excited about it,” she shared.

The future of Sasty Vegan seems brilliant while Pinky aims at hyper-ladder the food chain in the way she wanted the company. “Global expansion is important for 2.0.” She revealed. “We have talked about Dubai and Africa and really on the level of the slutty vegan beyond the United States, there are great opportunities for other people to invest in the brand with their own slut, which I will be able to share (more on) this in the future.”

In addition to Slutty Vegan, Pinky has the brand’s spin-off operation, vegan bar, a tapas and cocktail bar with a modern flair, and seeks to develop even more in hospital space alongside her husband who owns the popular Big Dave’s Cheenesteaks. “The Hayes Hospitality group, which is coming soon. The objective is to build this great food empire, ”explained the proud business owner. “Between me and my husband and her projects and my projects – I just like to connect people and the community. And if I can do it by food, it’s a winner for everyone. ”

With her great current business and her obstacles to life behind her, Pinky is impatiently awaiting and kept my eyes on the price: “I just want to sit down and look at all the big brands that I build and create, succeed.”