A “Young Investors & Technology” panel at The Jerusalem Post Miami Conference featured two startup founders pitching products at the edge of medicine, defense, and regulated finance, with moderator Dr. Efraim Chalamish telling the audience that “big things start small” as Israel and the US look to deepen their commercial and strategic bridge.
Chalamish, a New York University professor and a senior advisor at the risk management firm Kroll, framed the session as an examination of how emerging founders think about the next wave of applied technology.
Connor Glass, founder and CEO of neurotechnology company Phantom Neuro, told the audience his team is working on ways to “control machines with your mind,” pointing to non-brain interfaces that connect through the body’s limbs.
Glass said the first applications focus on disability, with the goal of enabling an upper-limb amputee to control a robotic arm “as if it’s their natural arm.”
Glass also described defense-related work aimed at reducing reliance on handheld controllers, saying Phantom Neuro has been working with the US Defense Department “trying to eliminate handheld control interfaces,” with the aim of controlling a “battlefield ecosystem” through thought.
Turning to regulation, Glass argued that medical-device development faces rigid processes that slow early trials in both the US and Israel, and said companies often run early-stage clinical work in countries that move faster. He contrasted that with defense innovation, which he described as “more relationship-based,” and said his entry point into the US system came through DARPA.
Sports market on the rise
On the finance side, Jacob Fortinsky, co-founder and CEO of Novig, described his company as a sports prediction market that aims to rebuild sports betting into a two-sided marketplace that looks more like a modern exchange than a traditional sportsbook.
Fortinsky said the sector is shifting as gambling regulations and financial regulations increasingly collide, citing growing interest from mainstream market players.
Fortinsky told the audience that the “complex regulatory space” creates opportunities in industries that are “more complicated or less sexy,” arguing that founders can find “more innovation” in areas others avoid. He also pointed to changes in US policy approaches in recent years and said his team is trying to stay “one step ahead” of larger incumbents that move more slowly.
Both founders said talent strategy is central. Fortinsky said Novig built an in-person culture in New York and tries to compete with big-tech salaries through equity and mission. Glass said startups must be “mission driven,” adding that defense work can narrow hiring and funding options and complicate recruiting, including for AI specialists on visas.
In the panel’s closing minutes, Chalamish asked the founders to define Israel’s “unique edge” and how it connects to the US and global markets.
Glass credited early backing from joint Israeli-US investors and said Israelis “are willing to take risks and invest in things that other people won’t.” Fortinsky said startups are shaped by risk tolerance and “Israeli relentlessness” needed to build a multi-billion-dollar company.