Slutty Vegan founder gifts LLCs to Clark Atlanta graduates

ATLANTA - An Atlanta business owner is helping recent college graduates pursue dreams of launching their own businesses. 

Clark Atlanta University alumna and CEO of Slutty Vegan Pinky Cole announced she was gifting each 2022 graduate a limited liability company, or LLC, during Saturday's commencement ceremony. Cole said partnered with Varo Bank.

ATLANTA, GA -- APRIL 28: Owner Pinky Cole at one of her many Slutty Vegan locations in Atlanta, Georgia on April 28, 2022. (Photo by Lexi Scott for The Washington Post via Getty Images) (Getty Images)

"Every single graduate in this audience will leave this stadium as a business owner," she said. 

Clark Atlanta's class of 2022 has more than 800 graduates.

Cole started selling vegan burgers on Instagram in July 2018. Her apartment-based business grew into a food truck. Slutty Vegan has opened multiple locations since launching its West End restaurant in October 2018. 

According to a press release from Clark Atlanta, Cole graduated from CAU in 2009 with a major in mass communication/media studies. She was Miss Clark Atlanta in 2008 and was initiated into Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Her non-profit, the Pinky Cole Foundation, provides financial literacy and entrepreneurship training. 

Clark Atlanta is a private HBCU based in Atlanta.