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Verizon picks four small businesses for finals of its Small Business Super Pitch, with Carli Lloyd among judges
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Business/The Apex Times/Jul 13, 3:03 PM EDT

Verizon picks four small businesses for finals of its Small Business Super Pitch, with Carli Lloyd among judges

The telecom company said four nationwide finalists will deliver live pitches to judges, including soccer legend and entrepreneur Carli Lloyd, before the winners advance to events tied to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final.

By The Apex Times Newsroom2 min readAI-assisted Apex article

Verizon has selected four small businesses to compete in the finals of its Small Business Super Pitch, a nationwide contest designed to spotlight early-stage companies and help them win support for their growth plans.

In a July 13 announcement carried by Yahoo Finance, Verizon said the finalists will make live pitches to judges. The judging panel will include Carli Lloyd, the soccer star and entrepreneur, reflecting the event’s emphasis on both business execution and high-profile visibility.

Verizon also said the winners will go on to events connected to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final. The company did not specify in the reported announcement what form that opportunity would take beyond the link to the World Cup final.

The Small Business Super Pitch is positioned by Verizon as a way to surface local and emerging companies at scale, rather than limiting participation to a single city or region. The finals format, with live pitches, suggests an emphasis on presentation, traction, and clarity of the business case.

Small-business programs like Verizon’s typically align with broader telecom spending themes, including connectivity upgrades, digital adoption, and marketing reach for smaller firms. For a carrier with a large business customer base, these contests can also serve as a public-facing channel to highlight specific use cases for wireless and broadband services.

While the reported coverage identifies the finalists as a group and describes the judging and World Cup tie-in, it does not provide details in the information available here about the four companies, their industries, the scoring criteria, or the size and structure of any awards.

Verizon also did not disclose in the reported announcement what specific resources the winners receive (for example, cash grants versus service credits versus mentorship), nor how the contest’s earlier rounds were evaluated.

For companies and entrepreneurs, the next questions are how the finals will be scored, what each winner receives, and whether Verizon will publish follow-up material on the businesses’ outcomes after the pitches. Those items would clarify how much the contest changes day-to-day operating capabilities versus providing promotional exposure.

Why It Matters

  • Verizon’s contest underscores the role carriers increasingly play in small-business outreach beyond connectivity sales.
  • A high-profile judge and a World Cup tie-in point to a strategy of pairing business promotion with brand visibility.
  • Because the awards’ structure is not disclosed here, the real competitive advantage for winners remains unclear.
  • The live-pitch finals format suggests Verizon is testing how quickly small businesses can articulate demand for telecom and digital enablement support.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Verizon selected four small businesses as finalists for the finals of its Small Business Super Pitch competition.
  • The finalists are expected to deliver live pitches to judges.
  • Carli Lloyd, a soccer legend and entrepreneur, is included among the judges for the finals.
  • Verizon said the winners will be tied to events connected to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final.
  • The available announcement coverage does not specify the finalists’ names, industries, or the awards’ terms in the information provided here.

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Verizon picks four small businesses for finals of its Small Business Super Pitch, with Carli Lloyd among judges | The Apex Times