Athena Named NovaUCD’s ‘One to Watch’ for Helping Candidates Find Their Voice in High-Stakes Interviews

Athena an early-stage start-up which is developing an AI coaching tool to help candidates perform confidently and authentically at job, or other high-stake, interviews, has today been announced as the winner of the 2025 NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition, an intensive 4-week accelerator programme for student entrepreneurs at University College Dublin (UCD).

Following final pitches to a judging panel at the end of the competition Athena was named the winner of the €3k NovaUCD One to Watch Prize, sponsored by Terra Solar.

Athena, founded by Zander Deans-Xiao who has just completed a BSc in Economics and Finance at the UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business, is developing the hyper-personalised, recruiter-trained AI tool that adapts to both the candidate and the job, helping candidates show up as their most confident, authentic selves in high-stakes interviews.

Zander Deans-Xiao said, “It is a great honour for Athena to have been named the winner of the One to Watch prize at the conclusion of this year’s NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition, especially as the pitches delivered by my fellow programme participants were excellent and of a very high standard.”

He added, “Athena’s initial focus is on business, economics, and STEM students in Ireland and the UK applying for competitive finance and consulting roles. By combining generative AI with recruiter-informed insights, our platform delivers highly personalized, role-specific coaching. But Athena’s deeper mission goes beyond performance, it’s about helping candidates find clarity, confidence, and their authentic voice in moments that shape their future. We believe scalable AI should make people more human, not less.

Our current go-to-market strategy includes university partnerships, student society demos, and recruiter pilots and our aim is to empower students to confidently showcase their unique strengths without compromising authenticity.”

He concluded, “With a working prototype, we are currently looking to raise €60k to enhance our AI model and to develop partnerships. We are seeking mentorship and introductions to educational institutions and recruitment agencies which will be invaluable in building our credibility, validating product-market fit and preparing for growth. At its core, Athena is more than technology. It’s a belief that confidence doesn’t come from rehearsal, it comes from clarity, clarity of who you are, and the courage to stand behind it.”

Pictured (l-r) at NovaUCD are Richard Twohig, Operations Director, Terra Solar, Zander Deans-Xiao, founder, Athena and Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, UCD.

The annual NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition is delivered as a framework to mentor and support UCD undergraduate and postgraduate students who want to work together to develop and grow start-ups.

Ten (10) early-stage student ventures and 20 participants completed this year’s programme. Over the last 11-years 90+ early-stage ventures and 220 students have now completed the NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition.

Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, UCD said, “A key objective of the NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition is to provide the students with the skills, the confidence, and the opportunity to further develop their business ideas and hopefully in time launch their start-ups in Ireland and even internationally.

The final pitches delivered by the enthusiastic students, on a range of business ideas from sustainable agriculture to robotics to edtech to healthtech were all excellent, and I would like to congratulate all the participants for successfully completing the accelerator programme. I would especially like to congratulate Athena on being named the overall winner of this year’s programme and I wish Zander every success as he progresses his new venture in the months ahead.”

Pictured (l-r) at NovaUCD are; Weili Wang, Senior Investment Associate, Atlantic Bridge; Liv Torfeldt, intern, Atlantic Bridge; Richard Twohig, Operations Director, Terra Solar; Zander Deans-Xiao, founder, Athena; Anton Pluschke, Senior Commercialisation Specialist, Enterprise Ireland and Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, UCD

The 4-week programme, which uses the Lean Startup and Business Model Canvas approach, included a series of structured workshops and interactive workshops delivered by Raomal Perera and Caitlin Hafer from Lean Disruptor. Topics such as, customer development; value proposition; working in teams; design thinking; prototyping, environment mapping; financial planning and effective fundraising and pitching, were covered.

The members of the judging panel were; Richard Twohig, Operations Director, Terra Solar; Weili Wang, Senior Investment Associate, Atlantic Bridge; Liv Torfeldt, intern, Atlantic Bridge; Anton Pluschke, Senior Commercialisation Specialist, Enterprise Ireland and Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, UCD (chair).

ENDS
20 June 2025

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, t: + 353 1 716 3712, e: (opens in a new window)miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.

Editors Notes

At NovaUCD, the hub for new ventures and entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, we nurture and support new high-tech and knowledge-intensive companies. At NovaUCD we provide purpose-built, state-of-the-art incubation facilities alongside a comprehensive business support programme for client companies. At NovaUCD, we also offer a range of tailored modules, courses, seminars and programmes to researchers and students in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and technology commercialisation, including the NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition. NovaUCD’s founding sponsors are; AIB, AMD, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody and UCD. (opens in a new window)www.novaucd.ie