Pinky Cole, an expert in failure, built a $100 million business by sheer strength of character and acumen. On the day Pinky Cole was born, on the 9th day of December 1987, her father Asher Cole was sentenced to life in prison. As she was stepping into the world in which she would make a considerable impact, her father was set to leave it for a life behind bars for dealing in cocaine. A rough start that would provide teachable lessons for her in life and business.
Pinky Cole, therefore, was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth and called herself an expert in failure having seen poverty and adversity in all its forms. Her steep climb to the top was powered by nothing but her iron will, strength of character, and a deep belief in herself and her ability to change her fortunes. How she surmounted considerable odds to build a $100 million business is a testament to her belief that ‘your mind is your currency.’
Planting the Hustler Spirit
While her father dealt in cocaine, he also operated some legal businesses in Baltimore, Maryland like nightclubs. Therefore, even though he was incarcerated, Pinky learned the hustler spirit from her father and her mother who worked several jobs to keep the family going as a single mother.
Pinky Cole’s path to entrepreneurial success was therefore littered with setbacks. Her father had been incarcerated for 22 years when she started, her car was repossessed, she was thrown out of her rental apartment, she had endured so many bad relationships and she had lost through a fire the first restaurant she tried her hands in. In her own words, she almost lost her sanity.
“One thing about me, am going to shoot my shot.”
But Pinky refused to let adversity take the better part of her and instead of conceding defeat, she used the lessons she carried from her initial missteps to wade through the cutthroat competition of the food industry. In the end, armed with an amazing strength of purpose she built a multi-million dollar vegan food chain of restaurants that have disrupted the eatery industry.
Celebrated for her visionary approach to plant-based cuisine, Cole singlehandedly founded a company called Slutty Vegan, a restaurant that has turned around the perception of vegan food. Her enterprise has grown from a ghost kitchen in 2018, to a food truck to the brick-and-mortar chain of restaurants boasting over 10 branches and outposts in several cities and States in America. Needless to mention, she has become a preeminent player and leader in the food industry in America.
We feature her meteoric rise as one of our Venture Visionaries because her story and financial breakthrough showcase her acumen in recognizing consumer needs and trends and responding to them accordingly. Her triumph is a masterclass in turning obstacles into opportunities and showing this generation that nothing is out of reach to those who see opportunities and seize them.
And as she says, if she wants something, she shoots her shot.
An Expert in Failure: Initial Challenges and Setbacks
Before Pinky Cole became a successful entrepreneur and built a $100 million business, she endured a lot of setbacks that would have stopped the weak hearted in their tracks. These challenges were personal and business-related;
- Opening her first Jamaican restaurant in New York which she lost to a fire. This disoriented her, leading her to abandon the restaurant business altogether.
- Tried her hand in lifestyle television which failed to pick up the steam she desired.
- Becoming a mother when a doctor had told her she would never have children.
- Her car got repossessed leaving her with no means to do her daily activities.
- Got kicked out of her apartment.
- Went flat broke.
In retrospect, she says it is because of these personal setbacks that she was able to build a 100-million-dollar business. In her own words, “I needed all these negative things to happen for me so I can realize what is on the other side. And what was on the other side was building a multi-million dollar business.”
So, Slutty Vegan started as a modest restaurant selling food through delivery apps from her small apartment and later in a ghost kitchen and truck to brick-and-mortar places in several cities.
Despite these teething problems, Slutty Vegan has steadily grown in popularity with demand quickly surpassing supply. It is worth noting that her chain has drawn thousands of non-vegan consumers too who have since developed a keen interest in her foods.
Taking a Leap of Faith
When her first TV role failed, Pinky ventured out but got another role as casting director. During this time, there were moments of low business and activity which she creatively used to carry out food deliveries to homes through the DoorDash App. It was while picking up food deliveries from restaurants and delivering to homes that an idea struck her.
Pinky realized she could start her dream restaurant business by first setting up a ghost kitchen. When the bug finally bit her, she went all in with no business plan and no written down blueprint, just an idea that sounded good and an iron will.
And therefore, it can we said that an expert in failure built a $100 dollar business by never hesitating but taking te bay steps towards a beautiful dream.
Identifying Opportunities
It is said that entrepreneurs are those who see the things others don’t see and seize them. Pinky Cole identified that there existed a niche market for plant-based comfort food within her locality which had not been fully addressed. She capitalized on this demand for vegan food by starting her enterprise called Slutty Vegan.
Secondly, she did her research as all shrewd businesspeople do. She found out that there are 88 million people globally who identify as vegan and that 2 million of those people were in the United States, including Pinky Cole. This became her big break. Additionally, the rising interest in vegan foods helped propel her courage to step forward.
Building the Brand and Promoting Slutty Vegan
Pinky believed that the two most pleasurable experiences in life for every human being is sex and food. She therefore sought to bring pleasure to that which was within her reach, food. She built a $100 million business from the bottom up through a series of strategic decisions;
- She went all in to address a need that was not adequately being met.
- She settled on a price that was responsive to her clients, choosing to win their hearts early over momentary greed.
- Chose a niche of veganism which is “known to be pure, flavorless, clean, very clean, very green.”
Pinky major success hinged on her strategic brand-building. She gave a laser beam focus on honing her brand identity, implementing effective marketing approaches, and ensuring product uniqueness. And it is this that drew in strategic investors like Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti and Restaurateur Danny Meyer to support and invest in the expansion of Slutty Vegan.
Marketing Strategy and Promotion
One of her major teething problems was getting her business out there to Vegans and non-Vegans alike. And she did it her way, astutely employing the following;
- Building a unique, plant-based fast food that placed a great premium on taste and quality.
- Used Instagram and Twitter (Now X) to create a buzz about and make the desired connection with her target clientele. She posted mouth-watering images of her assorted foods and engaged her audience directly in the comments to build rapport and accessibility.
- Organized local community events within her locality that placed her brand right before their eyes and fiercely marketed the plant-based movement (Veganism).
- Use of a catchy name that created attention. The business name, Slutty Vegan, had both a sexual undertone and a direct reference to food.
- Instagram helped with visual storytelling and user-generated content.
- Twitter accorded her real-time customer engagement as she built the business.
- She has strangely named some of her menu items which spark conversation interest. Names like “One Night Stand” and “Fussy Hussy Burger.”
Millionaire Milestone
In the end her concerted efforts and cult-like attachment to her product by customers paid off. Someone noticed. Someone always notices those who leave their hearts in things. Forbes recognized her as a millionaire when she was still under 30 years old catapulting her to national fame in America, the food industry, and the black community.
Memorable quotes from the Woman who built a 100 million dollar business.
- Hard times don’t last. And that is how I was able to overcome crippling adversity to build a $100 million business.
- When you can be brave, there is nothing you can’t achieve.
- If you have the courage enough to make the first move, all the desires of your heart and all the things that scare the hell out of you will be easy for you.
- I needed all the negative things that happened to me so I could realize what is on the other side, a multimillion-dollar business.
- Failure is re-engineering a negative mindset.
- The name Slutty Vegan comes from sex and food. The two most pleasurable experiences in life are sex and food. If I can make people think about sex and think about food at the same time, I know that I can peel the layer back and educate them about veganism in a way that you’ve never known before.
- Surround yourself with the right people and watch your confidence grow tremendously.
- Your mind is your currency.
Lessons in Business from Pinky Cole and Slutty Vegan
This is how an expert in failure built a $100 million business and claimed her rightful place in the community of America’s foremost entrepreneurs;
- The customer first; Pinky has created unique products based on the tastes and preferences of her customers, leading to a cult following in her eateries.
- Create a pleasurable working environment for your employees. It is too common to find her employees happily singing, enjoying their work as they feed America.
- Create a product that will appeal to everybody. Both vegans and non-vegans now flock to her restaurants.
- Let your past failures be lessons in your journey that you learn from to grow.
- Give back to the community: Pinky has paid rent for local businesses in need, paid full tuition to 30 Atlanta students in need, and worked to provide life insurance to over 25,000 black men. Above all, she has created the Pinky Cole Foundation to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs.
- Uses the power of names, names that spark conversation to draw attention to her business and her food. Her book on vegan recipes published in 2021 is named, “Eat Plants-Bitch!”. Not to mention her strangely named burgers.
Conclusion: How an “Expert in Failure” Built a $100 Million Business
In conclusion, Pinky Cole’s meteoric rise embodies the essence of fortitude, determination, and unrelenting belief in one’s passion and vision. Her inspiring grass-to-grace story offers a rare glimpse into the rewards of a relentless pursuit of a dream and commitment to serving others that leads to the establishment of a million-dollar business.
How this woman who couldn’t pay rent rose above her failures to build a great company and extend a helping hand to the less fortunate around her is a testament to the power of the transformation of the mind.
By leveraging the power of social media and her grassroots community to sow a mustard seed, she propelled both her business and her community to greatness. Additionally, by marrying her business brand with the causes of the less fortunate around her, she has succeeded in proving that we can carry out business with a human face.
Finally, her story is an inspiration to the next cadre of entrepreneurs and philanthropists that everything is possible, if we refuse to let our setbacks define who we are and who we should be. That’s how an expert in failure built a $100 business!
