Mentor Session: Ajay Shah (AW Vanguard)

Event ID: PP1149353

Thu, Mar 12, 2026 | 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Venue: Room 400-402 (Hilton Austin Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Funding, Entrepreneurship.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.

Open JSON payload
{
  "id": "PP1149353",
  "track": "Startups",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Mentor Session",
  "event_id": "PP1149353",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Mentor Session",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "Mentor Session: Ajay Shah (AW Vanguard)",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2026-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1149353",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-12",
  "end_time": "2026-03-12T11:15:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-12T10:00:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": null,
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 79113,
      "company": "AW Vanguard",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2240173,
      "name": "Ajay Shah",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Co-Founder",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Ajay Shah",
        "credit": null,
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/94flJkG19IsOCqfSa2ZPu3_j1sw=/0x93:349x442/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/ba1ac43b-3de2-4215-a5cb-b11edd6ea324/pcid-917515"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Ajay Shah is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of AW Vanguard, where he helps high-growth companies. He’s launched several start-up's that have been backed by Magic Leap and Coca-Cola. He currently advises and invests in companies; venture backed startups, CPG brands and health & wellness products. With an MBA in International Business he previously served as Head of Strategy at Kurlon, India’s largest mattress company. He started his career at Fortune 500 companies including CVS Corporate, P&G, and Weyerhaeuser.  Ajay was invited to the White House as part of WHIAAPI’s leadership planning committee under the Biden Administration. In his spare time he helps curate immersive experiences and supports artists including Tetro the Mentalist and Illusionist.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": "4",
    "id": "V0367",
    "indoor_outdoor": "INDOOR",
    "name": "Room 400-402",
    "parent_id": "V0365",
    "parent_venue_name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "500 E 4th St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2651364,
        -97.7381904
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown"
    },
    "root": {
      "accessible": null,
      "age_policy": null,
      "floor": null,
      "id": "V0365",
      "indoor_outdoor": null,
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
      "parent_id": null,
      "parent_venue_name": null,
      "venue_entry_info": null,
      "formats": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Funding, Entrepreneurship.",
  "experience_level": "Beginner",
  "accessibility": [],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": false,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "closed_captioned": false,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Funding, Entrepreneurship.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "MENTOR SESSION: AJAY SHAH (AW VANGUARD)",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Startups",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_sales_client": null
}