Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole files for Chapter 11 bankrutpcy
TheGrio...
The popular vegan franchise grew from a food truck Cole launched in 2018 to a business worth around $100 million at its peak.
Aisha “Pinky” Cole Hayes, the founder of the Slutty Vegan restaurant franchise, has filed for bankruptcy protection after owing $1.4 million in debt.
The news was first reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
According to court filings, $1.2 million of that is owed to the U.S. Small Business Administration, while nearly $200,000 is owed to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
In January, Cole filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection but later withdrew it. On Feb. 12, she filed for Chapter 11, less than one year after reacquiring Slutty Vegan after previously losing the establishment to debts.
“The last couple of months, it’s probably been the most incredibly difficult of my entrepreneurial life,” Cole told her one million followers in a video posted to Instagram last year. “As of Feb. 13, the company went through a global restructuring. And as a result of that, that meant that I no longer own the company… I have gone through every emotion imaginable — Grief, sadness, fear, depression, uncertainty.
“What a lot of us entrepreneurs go through, I have gone through. But I realized that as long as I continue to stick to my faith, God will always be by my side. And as hard as change is, it is necessary, but it’s always for the good.”
The rapid success of Slutty Vegan began in 2018, when its food truck became a booming business, leading to several brick-and-mortar locations in Atlanta and beyond. Since then, several locations have closed and in recent months, two of the landlords on properties she has in Atlanta filed a lawsuit seeking $87,000 in back rent.
Before it was restructured in 2025, Cole owed $20 million in debt and stated that the company’s corporate overhead had ballooned after she stepped away. According to court documents verified by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cole listed all of her personal property, including vehicles, houses, jewelry, clothes, and more, at $3.7 million, and calculated her monthly expenses at around $41,700.
The news comes just as Cole announced she would be joining the cast for the “Real Housewives of Atlanta.“