Wednesday, June 24, 2026

A Pasadena Entrepreneur Seeks a World Cup Moment — and $20,000 for His Students

By THERESE EDU

Founder Michael Allen is one of five Los Angeles semifinalists in Verizon’s Super Pitch; if he wins the grand prize, he said, students go home with the equipment

Michael Allen has three minutes Wednesday afternoon to convince a panel of Verizon judges that the yoga breathing techniques he turned to during a difficult stretch in a corporate job belong in the hands — and on the mats — of elementary schoolers in Pasadena, Altadena and across Southern California.

Allen, founder of Pasadena-based Mindful Roots Athletics LLC, is one of five Los Angeles regional semifinalists in the Verizon Small Business Super Pitch, a national competition tied to the FIFA World Cup 2026.

The Los Angeles regional pitch event is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, June 24, at the Verizon Innovation Lab at 13031 W. Jefferson Blvd. in Playa Vista.

The regional winner advances to a July 17 national final in New York/New Jersey, where judges include two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Carli Lloyd. The grand-prize winner receives $20,000 and tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium, according to Verizon’s published rules.

Mindful Roots, registered in California on Feb. 13, 2025, runs athletic clinics and yoga sessions for K–12 students at more than 40 Southern California schools, according to Allen and the company’s website. Two of those partner schools are currently active in the Pasadena and Altadena area, Allen said. A third Pasadena-Altadena partner school has not worked with Mindful Roots this year, Allen said, because the school burned in a fire.

The local connection is the heart of his pitch, Allen said in an interview Monday evening. So is the gap between what he can offer and what most public-school families can pay for on their own.

“We are providing high level clinics that typically only affluent families can access,” Allen said. “We’re allowing students to really understand the game a little bit better and have fun with it while we’re doing that as well.”

The majority of Mindful Roots’ school partnerships are with public schools, Allen said. He said that if he were to win the $20,000 national grand prize, the money would not stay with the company.

“Our goal, if we were to win the $20,000 grant money, is that we would ensure that all students that participate in our classes, once the sessions end, they’re all left with equipment that they can take home so that they can continue to either continue work on yoga and their practice or even work on the sport,” Allen said. “So, whether it’s being left with yoga mats, footballs, basketball, it’s just anything so they can continue to practice at home.”

The pitch itself is three minutes, with the judges’ questions to follow. Verizon described the structure in written responses provided by Katie Davis, the company’s associate director of small business and workforce development.

“First, Precious Williams, the founder and CEO of the Perfect Pitch Group, 13-time national elevator pitch champion, and 5x #1 bestselling author will host a workshop for all guests to help them perfect their business pitch,” Davis said. “Following that, Michael and our 4 other entrepreneurs will each have three minutes in front of a panel of judges to pitch their business and how they positioned it to win, including what they have learned from Verizon Small Business Digital Ready.”

Asked why Mindful Roots was chosen from the West Region applicant pool, Davis pointed to the program’s school-based model and to Allen himself.

“Michael and Mindful Roots stood out on all fronts,” Davis said. “The business is driving growth in its community by using sports to teach valuable life skills to young people and coordinating with local schools. Michael is intensely passionate about the business, and he showed clearly how Verizon Small Business Digital Ready has helped Mindful Roots succeed.”

Verizon launched the Super Pitch in April 2026 as part of its activation as Official Telecommunication Services Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026™. The entry window ran from April 27 to May 18. Twenty semifinalists were selected — five each in Kansas City, Houston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, according to Verizon’s corporate announcement. Non-advancing semifinalists each receive two tickets to a regional World Cup match.

In the launch announcement, Donna Epps, Verizon’s chief responsible business officer, said the competition was designed to recognize a class of businesses she said are easy to overlook in the run-up to a World Cup.

“Small businesses may not wear jerseys and play in front of stadiums full of fans, but they are the stars of local economies, and we wanted to find a way to celebrate the vital contributions they make to our communities,” Epps said in the announcement.

Allen, asked what message he would give Pasadena residents who want to see Mindful Roots come to more local schools, said the case is one his community already understands as adults.

“Being a resident of Pasadena, you can’t refute that on every other block there’s now a yoga studio and that’s for a reason,” Allen said. “We now understand the value of what it does for us as adults, but I think oftentimes we forget that we can start earlier. We can start pouring into our children. We don’t have to wait until we’re in dire need.”

The two active Pasadena-Altadena partner schools will still be there on Thursday. The third one will not. Whether Allen comes home with a national finalist’s plane ticket — and, eventually, with $20,000 worth of yoga mats, footballs and basketballs for his students — is the question that gets answered around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Playa Vista.