At Invest Fest’s VIP Night, serial entrepreneur and Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole shared a series of hard-hitting lessons for entrepreneurs, urging them to protect their assets, value their teams, and reward loyalty with equity.
Speaking to a packed room of business leaders and aspiring founders, Cole began with a firm warning:
“Do not make yourself a personal guarantor on nothing in your business. Do you hear what I just said to you? Nothing in your business… What if something happens? You do not want to be personally liable.”
She then stressed the importance of building culture through the people you hire.
“You are only as good as the talent you employ, okay? You got good talent, you build a good culture. You build a good culture, you build a good business. You build a good business, you’re getting $500,000 deals,” she explained. On the flip side, she warned that poor hiring choices can sink a company. “If you have bad talent… the customer will feel it. And if the customer will feel it, they will not come back and support you.”
Cole also touched on a lesson she admitted was difficult to learn: the power of equity and appreciation for the people who help build a business from the ground up.
“If you got people next to you that’ll ride or die that’s helping you to build your company even though it’s yours, incentivize them,” she urged. “Give them equity into that business, y’all. Show them that you appreciate them… because their wins and your wins can really be the same.”
She closed her talk with encouragement for every entrepreneur in attendance:
“What I learned in business is you can go farther together. I’ve seen that, okay? You can go farther together. That’s my advice. And good luck to every single entrepreneur out here. Billion dollar businesses only. Yes, yes, yes.”
Cole, who has grown her Slutty Vegan empire into a nationally recognized brand, has become known for delivering straight-to-the-point business wisdom.
