In this episode, we sit down with CEO and Founder of Slutty Vegan, Pinky Cole, to talk about her journey as an entrepreneur and how she decided to begin franchising her food brand.
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Guest: Aisha “Pinky” Cole Hayes, Founder & CEO of Slutty Vegan
Pinky Cole has lived the full arc of restaurant entrepreneurship, from lines down the block and a $33 million investment to a restructuring that left her without her company for 43 days. She joins Allison Dudas and Mariah Morgan to share how she bought Slutty Vegan back and rebuilt it as a franchise system. She also speaks candidly about the mental toll of that stretch and the people who carried her through it. Along the way, she covers how she chooses franchisees, why she’s keeping the system small, and what she’d tell anyone considering the leap into business ownership.
Resources
- Listen: Kona Ice Founder Tony Lamb
- Listen: The Path to Multi-Unit, Multi-Brand Success in Franchising
- Listen: Industry Spotlight on Brick and Mortar Food Franchises
- Read: Chick-fil-A Costs, Pros, and Cons
Transcript
Allison Dudas (00:54)
Welcome back to the podcast from A to Franchisee Today we have a really special guest, so special that I’m joined by Mariah Morgan from Franchise Business Review to interview her because she’s a mega fan. We have Aisha Pinky Cole Hayes, who is the founder and CEO of Slutty Vegan, the plant-based burger brand that she launched in 2018
Pinky (01:09)
Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (01:16)
as a ghost kitchen out of her two-bedroom Atlanta apartment.
Before she turned it into a food truck and then a cult favorite fast casual concept with locations across the country. Pinky is a former television casting director and chief creative officer at DoorDash. Pinky
Pinky (01:33)
Thank you.
Allison Dudas (01:36)
built this brand, Slutty Vegan, into a cultural phenomenon by leading with crave-worthy food and high-energy hospitality rather than dietary messaging.
This is such a cool statistic. 70% of slutty vegan’s guests are actually non-vegan. So she has since, and you’ve maybe heard about this, navigated
Pinky (01:51)
Yes.
Allison Dudas (01:54)
the brand through a public restructuring and reclaimed it,
Pinky (01:56)
Thank
Allison Dudas (01:57)
relaunching franchise growth in 2025 with agreements signed across Washington, DC, Atlanta, Detroit, Ohio, and Florida. So she’s a mom, she’s an entrepreneur, she’s a real housewives of Atlanta Star, and now she’s a franchiser.
Welcome to the podcast, Pinky.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (02:16)
Yay, welcome.
Pinky (02:16)
Thank you for having me ladies. I’m
excited to be here. I’m like, okay, that was a good intro. I gotta take that intro wherever I go, Allison.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (02:21)
That was a good intro.
Allison Dudas (02:26)
I
am happy to be your hype woman wherever you go. I consider it
Pinky (02:29)
I appreciate that.
Allison Dudas (02:30)
an honor.
So we’re so happy to have you here, especially because you are taking on this new new ish chapter for you since 2025 of franchising. And obviously, we are dedicated to getting information out to people considering investing in a franchise. And we’re so happy to hear more about your story. So let’s let’s kind of go back to the beginning. Let’s go to your origin story. Tell me about the start of Slutty Vegan. Take us back to that two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta in 2018. What made you decide to?
to
sell vegan burgers instead of going back to television production.
Pinky (03:06)
Well, you know, it’s so funny. I’m going to take you a little bit further than that first. I had my first restaurant in Harlem, New York, and it was called Pinky’s Jamaican and American Restaurant. And I know the first thing about restaurants. I just like to eat good food. And I had a line down the block. So I knew that at that moment, one, I could potentially be a good entrepreneur if I applied myself. That’s number one. And number two, I know how to make good food and I can really create an empire around this.
So again, didn’t know what I was doing. Had this restaurant, had a grease fire, lost everything, okay?
Mariah Morgan, FBR (03:42)
my god.
Pinky (03:43)
Got kicked out of my apartment, my car got repoed, literally. I went from being this super homecoming queen, queen of my school, sorority girl, I was a producer for the Maury Show, doing all of the things, okay? Had a 401k at 28 years old, and then I had nothing. But at that same time, I got a call from a show on the own network to come and be a casting director.
And I moved to LA, packed up all my bags, walked away from everything. And I moved to LA. And when I was in LA, I was there for about two years. got the, we had hiatus. And if you know anything about hiatus, you know that’s the period where you start working. So while I was doing hiatus, while I was on hiatus, I started driving for DoorDash. Okay. And when I started driving for DoorDash, I noticed that there were these buildings that didn’t have a name on it, but they had like 10 restaurants inside.
And there were different drivers coming to these restaurants to pick up the food, including myself. So I’m like, well, this is a really good idea. I paper clipped that idea, got the call that said, hey, Pinky, we want you to go to Atlanta for three months to work on the show because the guests want you. So I agreed, put my stuff in storage, went to Atlanta. And it was in my two-bedroom apartment that I came up with this crazy idea to start Sletty Vegan. Now, remember, I was driving for DoorDash.
So Atlanta wasn’t hit to the ghost kitchen concept yet. So
Mariah Morgan, FBR (05:04)
Mm.
Pinky (05:05)
I found a commissary and I said, hey, listen, I just moved from LA. They got this dope concept. Would y’all be willing to try it? And they were so apprehensive. They like, I don’t, we don’t know what this is. We don’t know what it is, but we’re willing to give you a chance. And they gave me a chance. And that is where Slutty Vegan really was born. Cause after the two bedroom apartment idea, said, you know what? I’m going to start selling food via DM.
on Instagram and people would put their orders in and I would deliver the food well that was good for about a couple months until I got kicked out of that commissary
Allison Dudas (05:37)
Yeah.
Pinky (05:37)
because I literally had 300 people standing outside waiting to get a vegan burger and that is literally where the story began and everything has been up from there.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (05:48)
That is a great story.
Pinky (05:50)
Yeah, it’s
a crazy and it’s so real. It’s so crazy how things unfolded all from that origin right there.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (05:57)
I think that’s one of the amazing things about entrepreneurs is I don’t think entrepreneurs get enough credit for how brave you have to be and and also like you just have to ride the waves a little bit. And that’s that’s like a classic story there. That’s amazing. I don’t know if you know this, but Alison and I both are former business owners. So we’ve been there. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. yeah. The
Pinky (06:16)
Nice. you get it. You get it. It’s not easy at all.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (06:21)
ups, the downs, all of it. Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (06:23)
But yeah, so we’re both we’re both former business owners. And I think what’s so interesting about your story is obviously your your bravery and your hard work and and then also people have to sometimes take a chance on you.
All right. okay, so let’s let’s kind of fast forward here. So obviously you’ve got this really, really thriving restaurant. You have several locations in Atlanta and things kinda go things kinda go a little bit crazy. So what point did you realize that the growth that you were sustaining w wasn’t sustainable?
Pinky (07:02)
Well, you know, that took a very long time. so after I started the Ghost Kitchen, I ended up getting a food truck. And the food truck was super successful. and I would go from the east side of Atlanta to the west side. I had so many people coming to get the food, but I knew at that point I needed a location. So I it’s it’s funny. I was just talking about this story the other day. I was reaching out to realtors, nobody would talk to me. They like, okay, we don’t really know about this vegan market. So like.
I’m not about to put you in my space. One person in particular was like, Yeah, the vegan market is not gonna last, so I’m not even gonna give you a chance. So I felt a little bit defeated, even though I had lines down the block. At this time, I’m making like $20,000 a day. I got so many people coming in a restaurant. It was just so much, so much happening. and then I met this one guy who had a restaurant that has been vacant, and he told me that he would give me a try. I shared with him a deck, he would give me a try. The space was small, it was 650 square feet.
and I moved in and I opened in 2019. January thirteenth, twenty nineteen was when I opened up my first brick and mortar on Ralph David Abernathy, which is a historic block in Atlanta. Okay. I opened and I had twelve hundred people at my grand opening. Twelve, twelve
Mariah Morgan, FBR (08:15)
That’s amazing.
Pinky (08:16)
hundred people at my grand opening. The New York Times wrote about me. Like it was mayhem in all the good ways. obviously there were some roller coasters because the neighborhood was like, Okay, this is too many people. It was so much
Mariah Morgan, FBR (08:27)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (08:27)
going on. But from that moment,
I knew that I had something good. So I grew to 14 locations over the next eight years. Okay. And if you know anything about restaurant businesses, which we do, okay, running a restaurant concept is incredibly difficult. If you think about all of the biggest brands that are legacy brands today, you think about Popeyes and how Popeyes went bankrupt. Okay, you think about KFC and how KFC has struggled, but they thrived internationally. You think about
All the other brands that went under and then started over. It takes a lot to run a restaurant brand, especially if you are a startup founder, if if you’re bootstrapping, if you’re trying to figure things out. So fortunately for me, I was able to get a really hefty investment, which was a total of $33 million to grow the brand. Okay. Company valued at $100 million, all the things going right. I’m in almost a thousand targets.
got placement in Costco, got approved to go to Walmart. I’m like, you can’t tell me nothing, okay? I
Mariah Morgan, FBR (09:29)
Okay.
Pinky (09:29)
make the Times 100 list, Forbes list twice, okay? I’m on the cover of Inc. magazine, Black Enterprise magazine, Essence Magazine, every magazine you can think of, it is given. this is America’s Girl Next Door, okay? So all of my wildest dreams came true until the ship started crumbling. And how the ship crumbled is because we had a lot of debt, okay?
During the pandemic is when I thrived the most. But right during that time, supply chain was crazy. The lead times were hefty. Okay. People put inflation on everything. so what would typically cost me $500,000 to build a store eventually started costing me almost a million dollars to build a store. So
Allison Dudas (10:10)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Pinky (10:12)
here it is. I get $33 million. I’m buying real estate, I’m buying locations, doing all of the things. But I’m building in a time where everything is breaking down.
Everything is breaking down. so in in addition to, you know, I I had some people on my team which were very qualified in other areas, but like the restaurant business is just a different monster, right? and unless you really understand that business and have been in it for years, it is going to be incredibly, incredibly difficult for you to thrive. So one day I got a call that we had five million dollars left in the bank. And by December, we were going to be broke.
Okay, this was March. I was told that by December we would would be broken at the time I was pregnant with my third child. So here it is, I’m hormonal, I’m stressed out, I’m trying to figure it out like what is going on. I mean, to the average person, five million dollars is a lot of money, right?
Allison Dudas (11:02)
Mm. Yeah.
Pinky (11:04)
But to me, I’m like five million dollars. If our payroll is like $350,000,
Mariah Morgan, FBR (11:08)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (11:09)
$60,000 every week, that money is going to run out. so I had some tough decisions to make, right? my investors
And encouraged me to do an ABC. My ego got in the way. I didn’t want to do it, to be honest, because you know, here it is. I built this amazing, phenomenal brand. And I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that I built something so special. And now we have this debt and we can’t keep up. We’re we’re making the revenue, we’re making a lot of money.
Allison Dudas (11:34)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (11:34)
but but we can’t afford to pay our bills because we have the debt. And that is the story of most founders, and a lot of people don’t talk about it. So I eventually surrendered.
Decided to do the restructure and it was called an assignment for the benefit of creditors, which was very hard for me to do. but there’s something so beautiful in surrendering, right? and when I made that surrender, I did not own my company for 43 days. and 43 days later, I bought it back. And that is how Sluddy Vegan 2.0 was born.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (12:05)
I love it. I think this
Allison Dudas (12:07)
I love it.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (12:07)
is where I get to have my fangirl moment. Do I get my fangirl moment, Alison? Am I allowed? Okay. All right. So
Pinky (12:11)
You can have the paperwork.
Allison Dudas (12:11)
You can’t I think you have to. I think you have to.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (12:14)
just gotta say, I got a deep history with real housewives. All of it, but Atlanta in particular. And I was saying this to Alison this morning. A lot of the times you get a new person on Atlanta and it’s like, you know
They only share so much sometimes. You get the folks who d who have sort of the the wall up and I totally understand that, because you’re putting your life out there. But when you came on Atlanta, I immediately I mean I related to so much of your story as a former business owner and as a parent. And I immediately like, you’ve only been on a season, but I connected right away and I just obviously I had no idea that our paths would cross at some point, but I just even
prior to this day was like this woman is so brave into telling this story, but you are totally right. This is something that most business owners are familiar with and it’s just not spoken about. I think this is sort of a a function of our culture really is like the wall that’s up. And I applaud
Pinky (13:14)
Are you intermittent?
Mariah Morgan, FBR (13:15)
you for putting it out there and telling that story because I think people need to hear it. and I think it’s a success story in so many ways. I think you can easily say, well this is
it’s it’s easy to think that that is a failure. That is not a failure. I I think and you came out with such a a wonderful way of telling that story. So props to you.
Pinky (13:37)
Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, I I face some criticism for being as honest as I’ve been as an entrepreneur. But what I I believe is that I’ve opened up a gateway for people to feel comfortable to have a safe space to tell their story. Because I mean, now that there’s so many businesses filing for bankruptcy, there’s so many businesses restructuring, and people are standing in that truth. That is just the ebb and flow of business. And and
Mariah Morgan, FBR (14:00)
Exactly.
Pinky (14:01)
and a good entrepreneur knows how to pivot, they know how to restructure, they know how to start over.
And oftentimes the second go round is always usually better than the first time. And I’m a witness of it because here it is. I bought my company back 43 days later. Okay. Not only did I do that, I restructured my whole company. I did my franchise, my FDD. I got a really good attorney, did my FDD. Not only just did it, I learned about the franchise business. Okay.
and and and I actually love it by the way. Like you
Allison Dudas (14:34)
Yeah.
Pinky (14:34)
I could teach a class on franchising because
Allison Dudas (14:36)
Yeah.
Pinky (14:37)
I just got so involved and interested in the process because I said I never want anybody in my business to know more about this side of the business than I do. Yes, like have more expertise than me, yes. But I want to be able to be verse and be able to have conversations when it’s time to have those big conversations and know what the hell I’m talking about, right?
Allison Dudas (14:55)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Pinky (14:57)
so I’ve been franchising since
This year. Yeah. I’ve been franchised
Allison Dudas (15:03)
Was it earlier this year that you started?
Pinky (15:06)
earlier this year. And I’ll have you know, Allison and Mariah, that I am up to 17 franchised units right now. So I have done
Mariah Morgan, FBR (15:15)
That’s our job.
Pinky (15:16)
a complete 180 in my business. When I restructured, I only had four stores. I got rid of all of my stores, all of the dead assets. the the estate took
what what they thought had value to it. And I literally started from scratch, but I’ll have you know that having 17 stores, and that goes from we just got a three-store deal in Charlotte, North Carolina, which I’m really excited about. just added another Maryland store. we got Cleveland, Columbus, and we just added Cincinnati. so a total of 17 stores.
Is incredible for a business that is so high profile, right? That has gone through so
Mariah Morgan, FBR (15:55)
Well I think.
Pinky (15:55)
much public breakdown. That tells me that Sluddy Vegan is a weatherproof brand. Okay. That that this is not just an ordinary restaurant. This is a place where we help people to reimagine food. And it really is just a sign of resilience, right? Like you see a a founder lose it all, get it right back, but then thrive in the process, like
Somebody is going to study that at Harvard. They’re going to study that at Princeton. They’re going to study it at every HBCU because they see that if Pinky Cole can do it, I can do it. And and and it can be done and it can be done in a way this aspirational, inspirational, and motivational all at the same damn time.
Allison Dudas (16:31)
Mm. Yeah.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (16:33)
Preach and
I think y you said it when you mentioned the word resilience. I think that’s a huge part of business ownership. Whether you franchise, whether you’re a leader in a in a business, I think that that is a key word. I’m curious to know what does resilience look like on a day to day basis for you as you’re rebuilding a brand?
Pinky (16:53)
Okay, so when I was yeah, I gotta take a deep breath one now. when I when I brought
Mariah Morgan, FBR (16:56)
I know.
Allison Dudas (16:56)
Ha.
Pinky (16:57)
the company back, I actually I gifted some of my old investors shares in Nuco. Now you know that is typically not customary. Most people don’t even do that, but there were people who literally pulled out their 401k to support me, right? so I wanted to make sure that I show them that loyalty in return. So I gifted them shares in Nuco.
Okay. And now my cap table obviously is a lot cleaner. and I don’t have investment. So I’m bootstrapping all over again. But the beautiful thing about franchising is what I did is my existing stores that I had in 1.0, I sold those stores to franchisees. Okay. So now I don’t own stores. Now I can focus on what I’m really good at. and that’s building the brand, building the infrastructure, making sure that they have the support, the resources, and the training.
Because I think, not I think, I know. What happens with most entrepreneurs is we try to go in other lanes that that we we’re not even verse in, right? So like here it is, I’m trying to do operations and I don’t like operations. I’ll be honest.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (18:02)
Yeah. Yep.
Pinky (18:03)
Right? I’m telling you the truth. Like, but I love marketing and
Allison Dudas (18:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
Pinky (18:07)
I love brand building and I love delegating and I love doing doing those things. So I had to have a hard conversation with myself. Pinky, you need to do what you’re really good at and put people in position.
Who are better than you in other areas. And that formula together is a recipe for success. So I focus on leading my company, the vision, the relationships, the new partnerships, the marketing, overseeing that, and just building that brand culture. And then I have a COO and a president of franchise sales that goes out and get the deals, make sure that we have the best food costs, make sure that we have the best partnerships with our purveries and doing what we’re supposed to do. And then I have a head of training.
who is focusing on supporting the people on the ground. We literally today just hired a field operator because I’m like, all we got 17 stores, we gotta get something. Right.
Allison Dudas (18:52)
But yep. It’s time. Yep.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (18:54)
Love that. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Pinky (18:56)
We we just hired a field operator. and then I have my assistant vice president who handles all the logistics and administration for for the franchisees. And then my next hire
is going to be a we’re we’re gonna get in we have an outside accountant, but we’re gonna bring in an inside bookkeeper because you know how it goes when you’re franchising and you have royalties. I’ll give you a little tidbit for people that are watching this. Davo, if you if you guys are familiar with Davo, do you know what Davo is? Okay. so for the people who don’t know what Davo is, Davo is a platform that we’ve historically used to collect our sales tax. Well, Davo has a program in beta now where they collect.
Franchise royalties for franchisors. So we have been tapping into AI, into tech and finding new avenues to be able to streamline our process because our team is so nimble. I literally went from having 64 people on my corporate team to four. Now five
Mariah Morgan, FBR (19:50)
Yeah.
Pinky (19:51)
today. So I’m excited about the new learnings that I’m learning. I feel like I’m an entrepreneur all over again, right? And I
Mariah Morgan, FBR (19:58)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (19:59)
love the art
Allison Dudas (19:59)
Fifty.
Pinky (19:59)
of building and doing new things. And I get to do that right now in real time.
and I’m excited. I love that for me. And I love where I am. And I’ll be honest, Mariah and Allison, I was depressed, right? Like I was in a depression. I I would come home and I would walk right past my kids. Thank God I I got help, right? I will walk right past my kids and I would lay on my pillow. It would just be me and my pillow at night. And here it is, I gotta figure out $84,000 difference in payroll every week, trying to pay my bills and do all of the things. And those are conversations that, you know, entrepreneurs really don’t talk about.
And I’m happy that I could just be so open and honest about my experience because there’s so many people that are gonna listen to this and feel like they need to keep going because I never gave up.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (20:41)
Yes, agree. And what a beautiful thing that your franchisees have a leader at the top of their organization who has been in exactly their shoes before and knows, you know, that y they can relate to where you’ve been and you can relate to where they are. And that the decisions being made at the top are not coming from an unedu educated place, they’re coming from a very educated place, you know?
Allison Dudas (21:06)
I’m so glad that you’ve talked about some of the mental health part of this because certainly certainly as a woman and as a black woman, I bet you felt that pressure to like be perfect here. Be a perfect entrepreneur, be a perfect leader, not show any weakness, not show anybody what was going on if things weren’t perfect behind the scenes. And
And I I imagine that there are a lot of people that relate to that. And I think it’s really good to know if you are getting into business ownership that that pressure is real and then challenging yourself to to move beyond that and seek support, whether that’s like mental health support or support from the people around you or restructure if it’s gonna make your business thrive better. because it’s a lot of weight on your shoulders. It’s a lot. And I don’t wanna I I I wanna keep talking about the logistics of franchising, but this feels
like a good time for me to ask you this question. So there’s this scene in in The Real Housewives where you are talking to your husband, Derek. you guys are on a walk and and you kind of lay it out for him what’s what’s really going on with your business and that you’re gonna file for bankruptcy. And and I saw that
Clip and I was really, I was really moved and I really also felt seen because I was like, I know how hard that is to talk to your spouse and
Mariah Morgan, FBR (22:24)
Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (22:25)
to really let them see this side of you because they see that they see the vulnerability at home. Obviously, they see it maybe when you’re impatient with your kids and when you’re tired or whatever, but to let them see that part of your your business persona is is really challenging. And and I wonder if if you could speak a little bit to people who are thinking about
Pinky (22:45)
Okay.
Allison Dudas (22:46)
being
becoming entrepreneurs, how important is that being able to have somebody in your life or multiple people in your life that you can let that let your guard down to?
Pinky (22:57)
Well, well, first things first, I’ll tell you this. If you make the crazy decision to be an entrepreneur, you will fail. Okay. And failure looks like a lot of different things, okay? You may have a little minimal failure or you may have a big failure. Okay. That is just inevitable. It’ll happen in entrepreneurship. It literally is a part of the process. But what makes entrepreneurship so special?
While you’re going through those failures, is having people around you that will uplift you and support you. So I have this analogy like windshield wipers, okay? You ever been in the car and it started raining and you got to turn on your windshield wipers? Well, the windshield wipers are not designed to stop the rain, okay? They’re designed to move the rain out the way. So who do you have in your life as a windshield wiper?
Who is going to move things out the way when you’re in the middle of a storm? Even if it’s a conversation, even if it’s lending a shoulder to lean on, even if that’s somebody praying for you, even if that’s somebody who’s in the same industry as you and offering you resources, it is so critical. Okay. It’s just like charging your phone. You need that power source, okay? That power that is connected to you that will really reignite that battery. And my husband is that for me.
Right. So when you watch that scene, that was a real honest scene. You know, when I met my husband, he he owns Big Dave’s cheesesteaks for the people who are watching this. And he’s doing better than me. Okay. Like
Allison Dudas (24:20)
Thank you.
Pinky (24:22)
he’s number four in the country. Top 100 fast casual. He’s he’s winning all the awards. He’s having his moment. And I love that for him, especially while I have been going through a restructure. but when I met him, he also had lines down the block.
He also has a great brand story, right? So we independently came into this relationship with our own, right? So, you know, Neo, the singer, he has a song, I’m a movement by myself, but I’m a force when we’re together. Okay.
And because we get together, we are magical, right? So I did not want the burden of what was happening in my business to deplete the energy that he has growing his business. And from the outside end, some people would say, Well, you need to get your husband to help you.
I can do all the things that I want to do, but what I won’t do is I won’t burden him when he’s also trying to focus. He’s also trying to be clear. And and yes, seeing him win is the power source that I need. It is the motivation that I need. And I’m so happy that for the most part, he’s supported everything that I’ve done. He’s obviously offered to help me out of my bond. But I’m like, we don’t need you to do that. Like we both can’t be rough out here, right? Like one of us has to continue
Allison Dudas (25:25)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (25:30)
Yeah.
Pinky (25:31)
to lead the torch.
Because two is always better than one. And I like to say this, you know, we have six kids in total. Okay. So out of one of these businesses, one of them is going to make a really big major exit and we will create that legacy and that wealth building for our family that we dream about every single day.
Allison Dudas (25:49)
Yeah.
Yeah, such a such an important
Mariah Morgan, FBR (25:49)
Happen.
Allison Dudas (25:52)
note to bring up because that is, I think, why a lot of people get into entrepreneurship, but even specifically franchising, because building that legacy. And I love what you said about, you know, you’re when you’re together, you’re a force. Cause I also think that gets said about franchising all the time, going into business for yourself, but not by yourself. And the benefit. And I know, you know, I’ve I’ve kind of I’m a manure student of franchising these last few years too, Pinky. So I relate to what you’re talking about. Like I’ve
like now I can teach a class. Like I’ve gotten to talk to so many
Mariah Morgan, FBR (26:21)
Yeah.
Pinky (26:21)
Yes.
Allison Dudas (26:22)
incredible people, so many incredible franchisees. And one of the things that I hear over and over again is if you are a part of a franchise system, you have the benefit of you know calling up somebody who’s in the territory next to you and being like, hey, how’d that rollout go? It’s not working in my area. What what do you suggest? or
Pinky (26:37)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (26:40)
calling corporate and saying, you know, I I need some more training in this particular system.
Pinky (26:45)
Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (26:46)
And
I I guess so what I’m thinking about now too is after hearing about your strong vision and after hearing about all of your passion, what’s what’s an ideal franchisee for you?
Pinky (26:56)
that’s a great question. I only franchise to operators. Okay. I find the strong where I am weak. and I’ve been very intentional about that. only operators. And all of my franchisees are operators. They most of them have multiple restaurants already. My first franchisee, actually, they’re the first franchisees of a company called Juicy Patty, which migrated from Jamaica. They’re doing incredibly well. and they have three stores.
And then I have another franchisee who has three stores and a food truck. he owns 12 restaurants on his own. My Charlotte franchisee, he grew up to 15 stores and his he had a restaurant concept. I have another franchisee who’s also a franchisee of a cereal bar company.
Allison Dudas (27:44)
Hmm.
Pinky (27:44)
and and then I have my operators. A lot of people don’t know this. My four existing stores that I had, I actually gifted them to my GMs. Okay. And because I gifted them to the GMs.
Converted them over to franchisees. So they went from shaking fries and flipping burgers to becoming operators to now becoming franchisees of the movement. so everybody in my ecosystem knows the restaurant business. And I love that for us because it just makes life so much easier. They know about labor, they know, you know, about margins. Like we can speak a language that doesn’t feel
inauthentic because they understand where it is that we’re trying to go. So when I’m looking for a franchisee, we have like a very specific process. So my president of franchise sales, his name is Eric La Levine and he’s fantastic from New York. He’s a New Yorker. So if you know anything about New Yorkers, okay, right? Straight to the point, hardcore.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (28:37)
yeah.
Pinky (28:40)
But what he does is he has his first preliminary conversation and see if they qualify and if he feels like they’re they’re a good candidate. At that point,
I get on the phone, I specifically talk to every single person that he believes is qualified to have a conversation with me. and instead of me begging people to see the vision, I only want people who already see the vision, right? And and and they’re showing me why they would be a great candidate for the business. and and I go off a lot of things. One, I want to make sure you’re an operator. Two, I want to make sure you’re passionate about the hospitality business. Cause even beyond just selling food, like, do you care about the customer?
Okay, like customer service is probably one of the most important things to me. That’s one of our pillars. I really care about how the customer feels when they come through the door, especially because I’m a public figure, right? So like I need you to when you come into my space, right? Whether it’s a franchisee space, it’s they still will say pinky cold slutty vegan, right? So I want
Allison Dudas (29:37)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (29:37)
to make sure that they have a good experience all the way around. Cause
Allison Dudas (29:40)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (29:40)
what I do know is that the average person will tell five people about their experience everywhere they go.
Okay, if it’s a great experience, they’re gonna tell five people, girl, you gotta come. This is amazing. I love it. The food was great. my goodness, customer service was great. If it’s bad, don’t go there. The food was nasty. I don’t like it. Did you see the bathroom? Did you you know what I’m saying? And that is a part of customer service.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (29:58)
But
Pinky (29:59)
So I want to make sure that the consumer experience is good. And if they’re talking my language, I’m like, okay, green check. Like my little Indian flags are going, my red, my green flags are going.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (30:07)
Yeah.
Pinky (30:09)
and then I also make sure that they have the funds, right? Because obviously that’s super important. like
And and and funds to be able to do what it is that we do. It’s not cheap, right? It’s not super expensive, but it’s also not cheap. but we want to make sure that you know you can get a build-out done, right? And and you can do what you need to do. I will say we’ve been really focused on supporting our potential franchisees and considering second gen locations because we know that there are a lot of restaurants that are closing. Okay. So instead of you paying.
Allison Dudas (30:40)
Mm. For a build out, yep.
Pinky (30:40)
$800,000 or, you know, whatever costs, depending on
whether that’s for a build-out, you can
Mariah Morgan, FBR (30:44)
Yeah.
Pinky (30:44)
go in and pay $175,000 and get you a brand that already exists, right? Get you a a store that already exists, that has the grease trap, that has the hood, that has all of the things that you need. And then you put your your face on it and your pictures on it and your designs on it, and you can open up your store and make your money back in three months. Right. So like just the thought process is what I’m looking at when I’m looking for franchisees. Then we do a
A verification process and just make sure that you qualify on paper, obviously. And then I built an advisory committee because I’m the type of person that like I don’t just want to go in my gut anymore, right? I used to do that back in 1.0. Like it just used to be like my spirit is telling me that this works. Spirit is
Mariah Morgan, FBR (31:25)
Yeah.
Pinky (31:25)
good, right? But I also gotta make sure that I have the opinions of other people that I trust and respect. So we have an advisory council that we actually
Put that candidate in front of the council and say all of the reasons why they work or why they don’t work. And if they do work, then we do a vote, an official vote, we record that vote, and then we extend an offer to the franchisee and we go from there. We are taking our time this go round, right? And I’m making sure that I’m doing everything right. And another plus is my husband is also franchising. He’s up to 34 stores, so we compare notes, right?
Mariah Morgan, FBR (31:57)
Okay.
Allison Dudas (31:57)
Yeah.
Pinky (31:58)
And best practices. So, like this is a whole hospitality house. So I’m making sure.
that this time it’s bulletproof so that we’re picking the right people and doing it the right way this time.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (32:08)
I love the attention to quality that’s
Allison Dudas (32:08)
Now you have
Mariah Morgan, FBR (32:10)
being shown there. and that’s something that we work with franchisors quite a bit as well here at FBR. And that’s something that we say a lot is the importance of an advisory council and making sure that a franchisee is a good fit. And I’m a marketing person, so I have to say this, but I truly appreciate
The understanding that a brand is not just a logo, a brand is every touch point that a human being has with your company, whether that is the bathroom or the person at a register or the person who picks up a phone that’s still a brand and still so, so important to the experience that they have.
Pinky (32:45)
Yes.
Absolutely.
Allison Dudas (32:49)
So you have sold 17 franchise units altogether. How many are currently open? Six.
Pinky (32:56)
six are open right now. And then the other
are under construction. so well six are open. and then there are another seven that’s under construction right now, and then the rest are looking for locations.
Allison Dudas (33:10)
Okay. All right. So very much in process. That’s really exciting. And I think you bring such an interesting something we haven’t talked a ton about. We’ve had
a couple of food franchisees on the podcast to discuss what it’s like owning a food franchise. And we haven’t necessarily gotten into some of the nitty-gritty of the opening and finding a location and doing a build out. And your tidbit about buying a place, an already existing restaurant space is is very wise, I would imagine.
buying an existing place because it is so expensive to build out. It’s so even even though things have gone down a little bit since the pandemic in terms of cost, it’s still things are things are very, very pricey right now. So anything to
Pinky (33:50)
So now yeah.
Allison Dudas (33:52)
kind of make make opening and making that rollout more economical is is very wise. are you all doing a discovery day? Are you doing how is what’s sort of happening there?
Pinky (34:07)
You know what’s interesting? Most of the people who have you know expressed interest in Slutty Vegan, say they decline the Discovery Day because they are truly fans of Slutty Vegan and they’ve been to all the locations. You understand what I’m saying? Like, so most of them are like they know the
Allison Dudas (34:21)
Yeah. got it. Yeah. They know your brand.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (34:24)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Pinky (34:27)
brand in and out. They’re avid fan, which I love because they’re avid followers and fans of the brand. So
Allison Dudas (34:32)
Mm-hmm.
Pinky (34:32)
most of them are like, remember, they’re operators, right? They
They they typically just asked about the kitchen. but most of them are like, I go I’ve been to every single one of your locations. I’ve stood in line at every single one of your locations. I’m a real fan. I know this business front to back and I love it and I want to be connected to it. so we do have discovery days, but not as much as the av average, you know, franchisee, potential franchisee, because all of them are already invested so heavily in the brand. They n sometimes know it more than me. Like they
Mariah Morgan, FBR (35:00)
Okay.
Pinky (35:00)
like, do you remember that time that you did this? I’m like, No, I don’t remember that. Like
They’ve been following the brand so long, which which which I love that. But when we do our training, they obviously come down. and then I actually will go up with them and train with them as well at their stores. I’m very heavily involved in the process this go around. So, like if somebody is interested in franchising, they actually talk to me. And what we do is when we get our franchisees, we reserve a day. So how we do it is we reserve a day for every franchisee.
to talk to them and track their progress. Okay. And then the minute that they open the store, we turn them over to a Monday call with all of our operators. And we talk to them every Monday. And what I do on Mondays is I have a plant-based brief. Okay. And that plant-based brief talks about everything that’s happening in the market. So just recently, two plants just closed.
There there was a pizza restaurant in New York that just closed down. So I talk
Mariah Morgan, FBR (35:54)
Yeah.
Pinky (35:54)
to all of the operators about what’s happening in our industry so that they can understand how to be able to navigate as franchisees. Like, do I need to sell this? Like, for example, there are a lot of restaurants that are putting punk and spike re punk and spice recipes, menu items on their menu. So we’re like, okay, well, we need to do punk and spice because they know something that we don’t know, right? So we talk about best practices, how how how to make the stores
profitable, how to upsell, all the things that will make your store successful. We talk about that on Mondays, but we have a very regimented process this time around. and I love it because it keeps the structure in the corporate side of the business. And then it also gives confidence to our franchisees knowing that, hey, they’ve been through a lot, but but they they get it and they understand. We we risk recently just had a a conference called SluttyCon in Atlanta at the Renaissance hotel. I know.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (36:50)
I love it too.
Allison Dudas (36:49)
I love it.
Pinky (36:50)
thank you.
so it was our first annual conference called SludyCon. All of our franchisees flew from all over to come. and we brought all brought in all of our vendors. and it was an incredible experience. And I’m happy that we got to do that because not only are we, you know, bringing in franchisees, we sh we’re showing them that we’re doing the work.
Right. We’re showing them that we are a support system. They can call us and we have this 24 hour policy, right? We respond in 24 hours or less. So they never have to feel like they can’t reach us. They know that they always have a tangible way to get in contact with myself or my team, just so that they can feel safe and secure as they’re spending their own money to be able to build their business.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (37:33)
You’re speaking our language ’cause here at FBR we talk so much about trust and the importance of trust f in the direc both directions, franchisee to franchise or and vice versa, and that relationship and the importance of it as a cornerstone to a successful franchise.
Pinky (37:51)
Absolutely.
Allison Dudas (37:52)
So, how do you envision keeping this kind of intimate community feel that you have in your brand as you expand? Because I think it it there’s kind of no question that you are you’re gonna keep growing. and right now people have access to Pinky, people have access to to Eric. So how are you gonna keep that strong community as you get bigger and have more locations that are further away and more operators?
Pinky (38:19)
That’s a great question. So our motto is less franchisees and more locations. Okay. so we want to focus on the people that we have already in our pipeline. So something that we’ve already started doing is meeting with different banks to support and funding for our already existing franchisees. They’re really great operators. And, you know, I was just telling Eric, my president of franchise sales. I say, you know what? I love where we are right now.
Right. And I love the fact that most of our franchisees have multiple Suddy Vegan locations now. And if we can keep it nimble, right, obviously we’ll get more franchisees coming in. but if I can keep that number at like 50, right? 50 franchisees, but each franchisee has 10 to 20 locations, then I can still touch you.
Right. Then I can still communicate with you. And it doesn’t feel like a stretch for me as the founder and a public figure who’s also a reality star doing all these things. I can still stay very heavily involved without
Allison Dudas (39:18)
Mm.
Pinky (39:19)
having a hundred different franchisees, right? Trying to talk to me, trying to ask questions. And that is almost where it gets convoluted. So the the goal of the exercise is to keep it nimble, keep it small, less franchisees and support those franchisees and getting newer and more locations so that they too can be successful.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (39:38)
Think that’s smart. And it’s interesting over the lifespan of a business you have those moments where you’re like, This phase is a great phase. and you wish you could like catch the lightning in a bottle. And I love that you’re thinking
Allison Dudas (39:49)
Hmm.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (39:50)
about how you catch that lightning moment.
Pinky (39:52)
Absolutely.
Allison Dudas (39:55)
I think that’s a really cool, cool thing to think about. Like you want to continue to be ’cause I I remember I watched an interview that you did on a podcast to prepare for this. I think it was with it might have been with Cam Newton. I’m not sure. And
And you talked about how you felt like things started to go off the rails when you got less involved in your brand, that you felt like you weren’t intimately there. so I
Pinky (40:19)
Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (40:20)
it’s it’s good to hear you talking about how you’re gonna continue to stay to stay involved. Cause I think that that’s certainly people who are buying into your brand as new franchisees, they want that pinky Cole
Pinky (40:31)
They
Allison Dudas (40:32)
They do. They do. They do. And they
Pinky (40:31)
want me. Yeah. They do.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (40:32)
Yeah.
Allison Dudas (40:34)
want, you know, you’re you’re passionate about veganism, you’re passionate about good food and
Undoubtedly people are attracted to your brand because of that. all right, so back to kind of the nuts and bolts of franchising, because you did do kind of a 180. You were like, I’m not gonna franchise, I’m not gonna franchise, and now you’re franchising. What do you feel like was the biggest thing that you had to either unlearn about franchising or change your mind about franchising? What was like the thing that kind of helped you go, okay, this is a good idea?
Pinky (41:04)
Get out of my own way, to be honest, right? Like it used to be like me, mine, it’s mine. I don’t want to share it. Like, I people aren’t gonna love my brand, like I love my brand. And the minute that I like debunk that myth, things got a whole lot better. I got some franchisees that I feel like love my brand more than me. You know what I’m saying? And I’ve also put guardrails in place. Like we just signed up for mystery shopper program, right? so so now I have mystery shoppers going into the stores.
To make sure that we have exactly what we need, that they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, that we’re keeping the standards and the structure in the business so that my franchisees also know that we are going to hold you accountable for a really great experience, right? And we’re gonna do it in a way where we’re gonna invest the money to make sure that that happens. And then hiring that field operator, that person that’s also going to be a support system for the franchisees and making sure that they’re following all the guidelines and they’re not in there making fried chicken and hot dogs. You understand what I’m saying?
Allison Dudas (42:01)
Ha ha
ha ha
Pinky (42:04)
so, so getting out of my own way and just putting pieces in place to ensure that the experience stays the same, that the customer service is good, I think that that has helped me a lot. And I feel so much more comfortable about that now. because the fish rots from the top. I don’t know if you ever heard that saying, right? so if you if you if you do a good job from the top, you show your professionalism from the top, you show that you mean business from the top, everybody will follow suit.
Right. You ever go into a clean
Mariah Morgan, FBR (42:31)
Yeah.
Pinky (42:32)
bathroom and like when you’re done, you gotta make sure that it looks how you left it, how you found it. Like literally, it’s almost like that, right? they come in and they see that we’re committed to their success, we’re committed to the professionalism, we’re committed to communication, and as a result, they respond in that way. So we are continuing to make sure that people respond to us in the way that we’re responding to them. and it’s it’s very healthy.
And I love that. Like I’m in a really, really good season right now. You know, I’m a very spiritual person. so for the people who are spiritual like myself, I think that entrepreneurship is a spiritual practice. Okay. It ain’t about dollars and cents at the end of the day. Okay, because y’all have been in business before. I know some days you like, God, please help me get through this.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (43:18)
yes. Yes.
Pinky (43:18)
Yeah, if you can get me through this, then I will not do this again. Or please help me understand how I’m gonna pay my payroll, or help me understand,
please get me to the next level. And I believe it’s all spiritual, right? So if you can tap into that, everything will align itself, right? And be focused and be disciplined and committed. and I’m talking to myself too because I know what it looks like not to be committed and not to be disciplined. I went off and got married and had babies, and I put people in position to run my company.
And I ended up losing everything, but I needed to lose everything to realize the value that I have in my business and I’ll never let it happen again.
Allison Dudas (43:52)
Yeah. Yeah. Pinky, this has been so great. I I I I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. And
Pinky (43:59)
Thank you.
Allison Dudas (44:00)
I know a lot is on the horizon for you. Firstly the birth of your baby next month and
Pinky (44:05)
Pretty much. Yeah.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (44:06)
Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (44:07)
and certainly the growth of slutty vegan in the world of franchising. And we we wish you the best and are so Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (44:15)
We are cheering you on.
Pinky (44:17)
Thank you. Thank you. I would like to
say, for the people who are interested, because you know I gotta put my shameless plug. For the people for the people
Mariah Morgan, FBR (44:24)
You do. Mm-hmm.
Allison Dudas (44:24)
you have to. We won’t stop.
Pinky (44:26)
who are interested, we are franchising and we actually just got our registration for Illinois. so honorable mention if you live in the state of Illinois, you can franchise.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (44:35)
Fabulous.
Pinky (44:38)
and you can go to www.sluttyveganatl.com slash franchise.
or just shoot us a message and we’ll have somebody reach out to you. and shout out to Fran Connect. if you’re a franchisee, Fran Connect is that girl, okay? Fran FranConnect helps keep us organized. and all of our franchisees, they get to go through that pipeline and it just give us a way to just keep everything systematic. Cause I’m all about systems this time around. If you hear me,
Allison Dudas (45:02)
Yeah.
Pinky (45:03)
I’m talking about systems a lot. So FranConnect has been really a a big support for us. but if you want a franchise, come holla at me, okay? We got something really good going on and I’m excited about it.
and you know, be being on Housewives is obviously, you know, a cherry on top because, you know, I get to talk about my brand for in front of millions of people, you know. So and create awareness.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (45:19)
Mm-hmm. Talk about great awareness. Mm-hmm. I want Frank Connect
to put that on their website. Frank Connect is that girl. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Pinky (45:28)
Yes. Right. right. But thank you guys. Thank you. Yes.
Allison Dudas (45:30)
I think we have a new slogan for you. I love that. I love we’re doing, we’re doing the work. All right. Well,
thank you so much. Wishing you the best. And and thanks for being on.
Mariah Morgan, FBR (45:41)
Yeah. Thank you, Pinky.
Pinky (45:42)
Thank you guys.
Thank you.
