After restructuring the business earlier this year through a state-level alternative to bankruptcy, Pinky Cole Hayes is launching a franchise program for Slutty Vegan. She hired former Planet Fitness and 7-Eleven exec Shawntel Daniels as franchise president, teased a “high-profile celebrity” as the first franchisee and said she’s ready to “come back on top.”
In the years since founding Slutty Vegan, Aisha “Pinky” Cole Hayes appeared on the cover of major magazines including Time, Essence and Jet, which celebrated the entrepreneur for creating a restaurant chain that changed the way people think about plant-based food.
Perhaps what Cole Hayes is most proud of, however, is her resilience and what she described as the courage of a fighter needed to regain control of Slutty Vegan after debt and cash flow challenges forced her into insolvency proceedings just a few months ago.
“I went to restructure on February 13 of 2025 and then I repurchased the company March 28, 2025. We're in September, and I'm about to announce franchising,” Cole Hayes said. “I've never, in my history of being an entrepreneur or professional in the hospitality space, I've never seen anybody that has done what I've done in less than one year.
Slutty Vegan CEO Aisha "Pinky" Cole Hayes says she has full creative control of the brand after going through a restructuring process earlier this year.
“I really want to show other entrepreneurs that even though it's hard … you can redeem yourself, and you can come back from a tough situation, and you can rise above and come back on top.”
Slutty Vegan was on a rocket-like trajectory after Cole Hayes launched the concept from a shared kitchen in an Atlanta suburb in 2018. A food truck followed, along with brick-and-mortar restaurants in Atlanta, Dallas, Baltimore and Brooklyn, New York. Snoop Dogg, Queen Latifah and numerous other celebrities raved about the indulgent food that altered the perception of plant-based meals as boring and tasteless.
Take the Hollywood Hooker, a vegan twist on the Philly cheesesteak, or the One Night Stand, with a plant-based patty, Slutty Strips vegan bacon, vegan cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato and the brand’s Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun. Cole Hayes became a master of combining provocative branding with a meatless menu—and making it approachable to customers with or without dietary preferences.
“My audience is actually not vegan. They're meat eaters,” said Cole Hayes, something she characterized as a competitive advantage because Slutty Vegan has a wider customer base that includes typical fast-food consumers.
“Most of the people that come, they come because they want to see what the hype is about. They want to see if vegan food can really taste good, and as long as I can continue to create that narrative, I always have people coming through the doors,” she continued. “And in order to continue to get butts in seats, you got to make sure that you're always being innovative. You're always doing things differently and having food that just does not taste vegan.”
In 2022, Slutty Vegan announced a $25 million round of series A funding, led by restaurateur Danny Meyer’s investment group, Enlightened Hospitality, and Rich Dennis’ New Voices Fund. The company was valued at $100 million and at its height it had 18 locations.
Just six are open today, including the first-ever Florida location that debuted in Brandon this summer. Cole Hayes is on a mission to build the store count back up and then some, but said this time around, she’s being more “cautious and conscious” in making decisions for the business.
Slutty Vegan was about $20 million in debt and burning through $100,000 a week as corporate overhead ballooned and cash flow issues put pressure on the business last year. In February, Cole Hayes filed for a state-level alternative to bankruptcy known as an assignment for the benefit of creditors, which was managed by Resolution Financial Advisors. A restructuring, several closures and a complete operational overhaul followed, and Cole Hayes regained control of the company in March.
Slutty Vegan has six restaurants, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New York and Maryland.
She formed a new parent company, Ain’t Nobody Coming To See You Otis—the name is from a popular quote from “The Temptations” biopic—to purchase back the Slutty Vegan name and intellectual property.
Meyer’s and Dennis' firms are no longer invested in the company, according to their respective websites.
“We grew really, really fast. But I don't necessarily believe that we had the right people. We had great people, but not for where we needed to go,” said Cole Hayes. “When I decided to move forward with the restructure, it was an opportunity to press a hard reset and just really just sit back and assess, like, OK, what could we have done differently? How could we have made this better?”
The biggest difference now? Cole Hayes is again at the helm as chief executive officer. She stepped back from the day-to-day operations in 2021 to become a mom—she had three babies in three years with husband Derrick Hayes, the founder and CEO of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks—but said she’s now “at the head of the wheel all over again.”
From ‘never’ to now franchising
“Once upon a time, I said that I would never franchise, but I realized, in order for me to take this brand to where I want to take it, it's going to require other people who are really experienced operators,” said Cole Hayes.
Shawntel Daniels joined Slutty Vegan in August as franchise president.
Shawntel Daniels has the same perspective. Hired in August as the franchise president for Slutty Vegan, Daniels said the brand has a strong operational playbook in place and is next focusing its attention on attracting franchisees who have restaurant experience or have restaurant real estate they’re looking to convert. Cole Hayes noted she plans to sell Slutty Vegan’s corporate locations to franchisees entering the system.
“What I want to focus on is making sure that these are people that are true entrepreneurs, that have some restaurant background, that understand food and it's not just someone that's really excited about being a part of the brand,” Daniels said. “We love that as well, but we want people that really want to invest that time and the money towards growing the brand. A franchise isn't just, hey, let's slap the name on it and it's going to do well.”
Daniels, who for the last year and a half was at BP leading commercial and development strategy for 400-plus franchise sites across the ampm/ARCO brands, did a stint as director of franchise operations at Planet Fitness and before that spent more than 17 years in franchise roles at 7-Eleven. She said franchisee support will be key to the sustained expansion of Slutty Vegan.
At her prior companies, “the reason the franchisees kept coming back, or kept renewing their contract year over year, is because the franchisor supported the franchisees,” Daniels said. At Slutty Vegan, she said that support will mean having business advisers working in tandem with franchisees and ensuring standards—and the brand’s sassy voice—are upheld.
Slutty Vegan doesn’t disclose average sales in its franchise disclosure document. The cost to open a franchise location ranges from $555,900 to $1,166,500. Franchisees who buy a single restaurant can also add a food truck at a cost of between $255,750 and $312,000.
The typical restaurant size will range from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet and feature counter service and communal seating.
Franchise restaurants began ramping up their plant-based offerings around 2017, and the next year, Fatburger said it was the first national chain to carry the Impossible Burger at its domestic locations. Burger King followed suit in 2019, and McDonald’s debuted its vegan version, the McPlant, later that same year but has since largely discontinued it in the United States.
Several other plant-based franchises have taken root, including Tacotarian and Mr. Charlie’s Told Me So, while others such as Stalk & Spade (from the creators of Crisp & Green) have withered.
Cole Hayes said she’s learned a lot about the franchise development process from her husband’s journey. Derrick Hayes started franchising Big Dave’s Cheesesteak in 2023 and has seven restaurants along with locations in the KIA Center in Orlando, Florida, and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Related: Personal Setbacks Help Fuel Founder's Big Plans for Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks
“I got to literally take a front-row seat to the whole franchise process, how they're vetting out the franchisees, how they're doing their discovery days … how you hold your franchisees accountable,” Cole Hayes said. “And then the revenue opportunity that comes with having other people build and grow your brand.”
“I saw the opportunity to be able to coach people who are just as invested in the brand as you are, and just give them the opportunity to fly and be free,” she continued. “And it's just a sure shot to drive generational wealth.”
Cole Hayes also learned about the importance of selecting the right franchisees, ones who aren’t only qualified financially but who understand the restaurant business.
“You can have a lot of money and not know the first thing about restaurants, and that's the surest way for a business to fail. You have to have the knowledge. You have to have the expertise. It's not just about money,” she said.
In the coming weeks, Slutty Vegan will announce its first franchisee, one who Cole Hayes said is a “very high-profile celebrity” and will also play a role in marketing the brand. The company is first focusing its franchise efforts on Georgia and Florida, Daniels noted, but filed its FDD in 32 states and will consider prospective franchisees in other markets.
Cole Hayes described herself as an “open book,” and said she believes future franchisees will appreciate the ups and downs of her journey because she understands “the grind of growing a brand from scratch.”
“I want the reader to be able to say, damn, like Pinky, yeah, she's been through a lot. She restructured her company. She started over, but she’s doing the impossible,” Cole Hayes said. “And her courage is what makes this offering so attractive, right? Because she never gave up.”