A hip and edgy burger chain may be expanding if its founder has their way, despite the company recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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Last month, Slutty Vegan’s owner, Aisha “Pinky” Cole, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Georgia. According to court records, her debts total over $1.3 million. This includes approximately $1.2 million owed to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a COVID-19 relief loan and about $192,000 in state taxes to the Georgia Department of Revenue. This bankruptcy filing follows a recent corporate restructuring in which Cole briefly relinquished ownership of Slutty Vegan before repurchasing the brand.
However, Cole seems unfazed by her company’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The new Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member even has her eyes set on expanding the plant-based burger chain.
“Despite all the negative press that I’ve gotten and all of the things that you see on the internet, I have gotten so many franchise requests,” Cole insisted recently to entertainment outlet Pop Culture. “People see what’s happening online. People see the story and the drama and the breakdown, but people still believe in my brand. And what I’ve learned even just most recently is that I have a bulletproof business. Slutty Vegan is weatherproof. And we’ve got a lot of things in the pipeline.”
Slutty Vegan Founder Elaborates on Burger Chain’s Version ‘2.0’
Cole also further detailed her vision for Slutty Vegan “2.0.”
“We’re signing franchisees that are experienced operators, which is one of the pieces that I missed, in 1.0, but 2.0 is giving more intentional scaling, efficiently, and I’m excited about this new journey and this new pathway,” Cole continued. “So what you see on the show is you will see the breakdown, you will see me evolving in entrepreneurship, you will see me navigating through marriage and through life and through the hard times, but what you also see is growth. You see growth in business, you see the bounce back, and everybody loves a good bounce back story. I’m just so happy because there’s gonna be a pocket of people that are gonna be rooting for me, and believing that they too can run through that brick wall because they see me do it.
Slutty Vegan launched as a delivery-only concept in 2018 and quickly gained popularity, evolving from a food truck to several brick-and-mortar locations and becoming an Atlanta sensation. The brand garnered national attention with cheekily named burgers like the “One Night Stand,” which helped owner Aisha “Pinky” Cole land on the Time100 Next list. At its peak, the company reportedly had a $100 million valuation.