Built in Chaos: War, AI, and the Future of Startups

The event will be held in Hebrew.
The event is free; donations are optional.
A community gathering in Bergen County!
Keynote by Aviv Shapira
Join us in NJ for a special evening bringing the community together with Aviv Shapira, Co-Founder and CEO of XTEND. Aviv leads XTEND, an AI-powered autonomy company building XOS, an operating system for robotics that enables human-guided autonomous operations across aerial, ground, and maritime systems. XTEND’s mission is to build autonomous systems that operate with human intent, extend human capability, and help make the world safer.

At the center of the evening will be a talk by Aviv on the intersection of AI and robotics to make the world safer. He will share how robotics is moving beyond direct human control toward practical autonomy, where systems can execute in real time, adapt to dynamic environments, and remain aligned with human intent. Drawing on real-world deployments, Aviv will speak about what it takes to build and scale deep-tech systems that work outside the lab, in complex, mission-critical environments.
Aviv is an aerospace engineer by training and a repeat entrepreneur. Before XTEND, he built and sold a company to Intel that became the foundation for Intel Sports, and he has received two Emmy Awards for technological innovation. XTEND is his fourth startup.
Moderated fireside chat by Hadas Mishli Netzer
Hadas Mishli Netzer

Hadas Mishli Netzer is tax partner at KPMG Israel’s international tax practice. Today, she is the co-lead of the US–Israel Corridor at KPMG US, an initiative designed to support Israeli companies as they expand into the U.S. market, while also facilitating U.S. investment into Israel. Through this platform, she help clients navigate cross-border opportunities by leveraging KPMG’s global network, deep sector expertise, and market insight. In addition, she leads the Israeli Tax Desk within KPMG US
keynote by Guy Katsovich
Guy Katsovich

Guy Katsovich is the Managing Partner of Fusion, Israel's leading pre-seed investment platform and accelerator program, which he co-founded with Yair Vardi in 2017.
Geared towards first-time founders, Fusion has invested in 140 startups that have raised $650M with a combined valuation of more than $3B - including Innplay Labs ($300M Exit), DigitalOwl ($200M Exit), ScaleOps, Agora, Base.ai, Hoopo, Accense, Samplead, Newlight, Singit and others.
Guy is also an active board member of the 8200 for Startups accelerator and hosts his own Podcast - a top-50 podcast in Israel. Guy has previously been included in the Forbes 30 under 30 honoree list.
Fusion is Israel's leading pre seed platform. We invest $150,000 in ~20 Israeli startups a year. All founders join our accelerator (Tel Aviv, California, New York) and we work closely with them to hire talent, get customers, and raise the next funding rounds. Fusion is backed by top-tier global VCs & 70+ serial founders.
Panel: Building AI First Teams By Community Experts
Aviv Canaani Chief Revenue Officer, Datarails

Aviv Canaani is the Chief Revenue Officer at Datarails, where he leads marketing, sales, partnerships and account management. Since joining the company after Series A, Aviv has helped scale Datarails into one of the fastest growing AI native finance platforms, helping finance teams modernize FP&A while staying in Excel. Datarails recently launched FinanceOS, an AI native financial operating system designed to help finance teams leverage AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot while maintaining trusted data, governance, and auditability. The platform provides a single source of truth for the CFO's Office across FP&A, cash management and month-end close processes. It connects finance data across hundreds of systems and allows teams to build repeatable AI driven financial workflows without replacing how finance already works.
Nurit Shiber, Chief People Officer, Axonius

Nurit Shiber is the Chief People Officer at Axonius with more than 20 years of experience building high performing, human centered global teams across both public and high growth private companies. She holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and has spent her career helping companies scale through periods of rapid growth, transformation, and change.
She has led People and organizational design functions through scale, transformation, and 13 mergers and acquisitions across multiple regions, integrating teams quickly while building distributed HR organizations that support growth without burnout.
Nurit partners closely with CEOs, leadership teams, and boards on organizational design, succession planning, leadership development, and scalable operating models that enable companies to grow efficiently while strengthening culture and performance.
Her current focus is helping organizations navigate the intersection of AI, people, and work design, rethinking how humans, agents, and technology operate
Rotem Peled, SVP Finance, Zafran Security

Omer Maman, VP of Marketing, healthee

Omer Maman is a marketing and product leader with deep experience in scaling early-stage and growth companies, particularly in health tech and AI-driven solutions. He has built and led marketing strategies across diverse organizations, with a focus on positioning complex technologies in clear, customer-centric ways. Known for his ability to connect product, storytelling, and growth, Omer brings a practical perspective shaped by both in-house leadership roles and advisory work as a fractional CMO. He currently serves as VP of Marketing at Healthee, where he applies this experience to drive adoption of smarter, more accessible healthcare navigation.
Dr. Adi Bester Grinapell, Director, Meitar NY

Dr. Adi Grinapell is a Director at Meitar NY, where she advises Israeli technology startups on building and scaling their US presence, as well as the venture capital funds and strategic investors backing them. Her work spans the full lifecycle - from company formation and financing through to M&A. She holds a Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School, where her research focused on the legal and financial dimensions of how technology companies are structured and governed.

Format
Networking
Keynote by Aviv Shapira
Moderated fireside chat by Hadas Mishli Netzer
Panel by Community Experts
Another keynote by Guy Katsovich
Networking