When Your Business Baby Gets Too Big

Hey honeys and hustlers,

Chicken soup for the soul. Burger King for the brain. Slutty Vegan for the small business owners. What started as a food truck grew into a restaurant empire, garnering national attention and millions in funding. However, her recent announcements - first stepping down as CEO, then buying back the company a month later - highlight the complex reality of scaling a business. As someone who has experienced the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, I've been reflecting on her situation and what it reveals about the challenges of maintaining control while scaling, especially for Black founders. This is a call-in, not a call-out. I’ve written about Pinky Cole and Slutty Vegan before, so it’s no secret that I respect what she’s built. I wish I were writing about her again under different circumstances.

P.S. Before we get into today’s article, I wanted to let you know that Michelle, Corey, and I will be live on Substack tonight at 8PM EST. Come hang out with us as we talk about content design for newsletters and how we define “creating value” for our audience. Hope to see you there!

I've been in a place where I've wavered in my confidence to make sound decisions for my business. This happened after a series of events that were outside of my control, but that I still take ownership over as the founder. I sense that she may be going through a similar rough patch, likely due to things that have nothing to do with her business as well (like being a mom to young kids and having a major car accident). In this case, being a founder is like being a 3-point shooter on a basketball team and going 1 for 13 from behind the arc in a game. For my non-basketball fans, that is not a good field goal percentage. But you can't be afraid to take that next shot, and you have to throw it up fully believing that it will go in. Whether it's in the next game in your rival's arena or in the last 30 seconds of the game one you're currently in with the win on the line. That's the nature of running a business. Sometimes you run cold and shots aren't falling, but you have to keep shooting to get back hot. The only way out of a rut is through. Writing this for me, but also you/her/everyone.

I think she went to social media and the press a little too quickly. I don't think she is, or was, really at a place where she could be completely honest and transparent about the situation. I think crisis PR and social media campaigns to restore trust or whatever only work when you're honest. I'm not insinuating that she's lying or that I know more information than is publicly available, but I sense the gaps in her story and that she may not yet be at a place where she can truly take accountability for what happened. The best way to know if someone is over their ex? If they can say what happened simply and clearly. No scapegoating, no gaslighting, just introspection and facts. I don't need to read a paragraph to understand that you made a mistake or miscalculation. It happens. Own it and move on.

She expressed that she wasn't overseeing day-to-day operations and didn't realize that overhead expenses had ballooned so quickly, to the tune of $10M. In the spirit of the above point, some brevity:

I don't care how much money you raise. I don't care how much press you get. I don't care how many followers you have on social media. If you build the foundation of a business without a “small loan of $1M” from your friends and family, that foundation is yours to maintain and no one else's. When your community builds you up, their ability to support you is central to your giving back to them. And your community includes the people you work with. She owes it to the people who work at Slutty Vegan to show up for them, plain and simple.

The final blow in this saga was her announcing that she fired her entire C-suite. I wasn't a fan when Arlan Hamilton did this on a random podcast episode on her show. I’m not a fan that she did this on a random episode of Earn Your Leisure. This is also isn’t the first time she’s let go of everyone in her C-suite at once. I’m a little concerned at the level of sweeping turnover in high-level positions. Regardless of what happened, they were placed in those roles for a reason. If she wanted someone to answer for mistakes, she could’ve gone about that process differently. Firing people is never easy, especially high-level decision makers, and doing it swiftly and decisively is often the best route. BUT the way you treat people on the way out, regardless of how they treated you or performed during their employment, says a lot. As a founder, you are responsible for the culture of the company. Yes, that sometimes means taking the high road when you feel scorned and hurt financially.

From what I’ve read, even though she’s closed and cancelled construction on current restaurants, she still wants to open new restaurants abroad. My approach, from the outside looking in, would be to keep the Slutty Vegan experience exclusive for as long as possible. Make the current restaurants a travel destination, as the flagship in Atlanta was for quite some time. Compliment daily restaurant sales with pop-ups, partnering with large cultural events in different markets (CultureCon, AfroTech, AfroPunk, Coachella, etc), focus on the partnership she’s building with her husband’s company, and do exclusive menu drops once per quarter. THEN, add 1-2 more physical restaurants in America before going overseas. While doing this, scale content, not overhead costs. Dreaming big is always welcome, but scaling too fast with too many moving parts and uncontrolled construction costs is partly how this came to pass in the first place (from my understanding). This is also a time where I’d be interested in developing talent within the company who understand her leadership model and embody company values, so that she can feel confident in their ability to make decisions in her absence.

She’ll probably never read this, so take what helps, leave what doesn’t as it applies to your business.

My final thoughts: I think we should give her grace for making the best decisions she could with the information she had at the time, but also hold her accountable for losing sight of what made Slutty Vegan worth investing in by venture capitalists and customers: the culture of community and great product. Sure, it’s great that she raised $10M, but most people will remember their experience at a restaurant, not a headline in an article. Again, writing this for me and you/her/everyone.