by Janee the ball
June 5, 2025
A game-changing transfer for Black girls in enterprise
Slutty Vegan Founder and CEO Pinky Cole is beginning a brand new chapter—and she or he’s not turning the web page alone. In a transfer that indicators daring intentions and even bolder execution, Cole has appointed Lauren Maillian as president of the wildly fashionable plant-based model. Maillian formally started her function June 4.
“That is the primary time that I’ve an all-woman workers in my company, which is tremendous, tremendous thrilling,” Cole shared. “Particularly once I take into consideration who I’m to Black girls entrepreneurs in America… I do know it’s gonna be nice.”
Her optimism hits more durable once you perceive what she’s needed to rebuild. Earlier this yr, Pinky was concerned in a critical automotive accident that left her bodily injured and emotionally shaken. That very same season, she quietly misplaced management of her firm—an expertise she has since described as probably the most humbling chapters of her entrepreneurial journey.
“I misplaced the corporate February thirteenth. I purchased the corporate again March twenty eighth. And now in the present day, I’ve appointed my President of Slutty Vegan—who’s the second president ever, and the primary Black lady.”
The management shift comes because the model strikes ahead into its subsequent part, which Cole calls Slutty Vegan 2.0. For Pinky and Maillian, it’s additionally a full-circle second practically a decade within the making.
Their earliest encounter was pretty random and straightforward to miss. “Our very, very, very first encounter was very casual,” Maillian recalled. “We have been each talking that very same yr, which I imagine was 2017, for John Hope Bryant on the Operation Hope convention, on the backside of the escalator. That was the very first time. And that very same day I had my very first Slutty Vegan burger too.”
Cole confirmed the reminiscence: “I really bear in mind that now. And it was you and your husband on the backside of the escalator… after which after that was Indianapolis, proper, Lauren?”
The 2 reconnected not too long ago at Kim Blackwell’s ExcelerateHER occasion. That’s when the dialog turned from admiration to motion.
“It actually felt like enterprise love at first sight,” Cole stated. “I would like someone that may are available and simply be my proper hand and actually take the enterprise to the subsequent stage… And in the present day really is Lauren’s first day.”
For Maillian, becoming a member of Slutty Vegan wasn’t only a skilled determination—it was private.
“I bear in mind even saying, like, ‘Can I make investments? Is there room for me?’ I wished to be part of Pinky’s imaginative and prescient. I wished to be part of the way in which that she was lighting the trade on hearth,” she stated.
With 20+ years of enterprise management, together with time in VC, media, tech, and meals and beverage, Maillian sees this second as one among alignment: “That is additionally very private for me… very synergistic with the life that I lead and permitting me to point out up as Lauren Maillian wholly and totally in each a part of my private {and professional} life.”
“There’s somebody crucial on Pinky’s group that I’ve labored with… on some actually huge offers,” Maillian stated. “Every part simply clicked for us… And what risk-taking and producing the suitable rewards appears to be like like. So yeah, full circle in so some ways.”
Cole emphasised the importance of their management dynamic: “In Slutty Vegan 1.0, it was very man-heavy… It is a new vitality. It’s a brand new alternative to point out that ladies are dynamic—particularly Black girls.”
And it’s not nearly id—it’s about execution. “I’m rah rah, this uncooked vitality that’s in your face, loud and vibrant,” Cole stated. “I believe that Lauren will carry a way of sophistication and quietness to all the things… She will take these concepts and execute them in a manner the place they are often scalable. And that’s actually what has been lacking.”
Slutty Vegan’s progress plan is expansive—and VOAGIES, Cole’s new plant-based sub idea, is just the start. “We’re transforming programs,” Cole shared. “Stabilization is essential proper now… after which we get again into progress mode: CPG, hyper progress, scale, verticals. Now we’re placing it on steroids.”
Maillian’s focus? Innovation by means of tech, shopper expertise, and operational precision. “We’re actually going to be recreating a playbook of how to have the ability to construct and scale excellence… Each retailer, each social media interplay, each piece of merch. That’s one thing that’s going to be a big a part of my focus within the subsequent quarter.”
When requested what recommendation she would share with different Black girls trying to construct their enterprise, Maillian shared a strong reflection: “You don’t get all the things you deserve, however you positively deserve all the things you get. And that’s how I really feel on this season.”
Pinky Cole echoed that sentiment along with her personal testimony: “There are going to be folks, locations, and issues that inform you you can’t do it… Six months in the past was the roughest season of my life. And now I’m getting into the very best season of my life.”
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