Ophir Neco

JIW What would you say were the most useful business courses you took while getting your bachelor’s at Reichman University?

Ophir In my senior year I took a business course called “Biology in the Entrepreneur World.” It opened my eyes to what was happening in genetics. The cost of sequencing an (almost) full human genome had dropped from about $100 million to roughly $100.

We spent the semester on personalized medicine and how it would reshape healthcare. At the same time, I had watched close friends go through panic attacks after using cannabis, followed by ongoing anxiety. I learned that conditions like these have a strong genetic basis, and that cannabis can act as a trigger.

That led to a simple question: what if a test could tell you which cannabis is better for you, if any at all?

My lecturer loved the idea. A few months later I was leading a team of six, including three Reichman professors and two experienced programmers, on a venture called Gene420. We won a startup competition, and I found myself in the US meeting doctors, VC investors, and a lot of very interesting people.

JIW How did you first get into the Israeli cannabis industry? How did you hope to help strengthen the industry?

Ophir Gene420 led me to Professor Oded Shoseyov at the Hebrew University, a plant scientist and serial entrepreneur who has spent years on cannabis research. Oded knew this space well, and talking with him, I realized we’d hit a science wall. DNA research had raced ahead, but research on the cannabis plant itself hadn’t. There was no reliable way to test a specific flower before you consumed it, so there was nothing to measure your DNA against.

Oded introduced me to GemmaCert, a startup he co-founded. It used near-infrared (NIR) technology to measure cannabinoid levels in the flower without destroying it. I joined as Global Sales Manager and started working the trade show circuit. Over the next couple of years, I met dozens, probably hundreds, of Israeli cannabis-tech entrepreneurs.

Then COVID closed the skies, and Israeli tech companies were suddenly cut off from the markets they were built for. That’s when I founded the Israel Cannabis Association. Its goal was to raise product quality worldwide using Israeli technology, and in practice its work became helping Israeli entrepreneurs expand globally.

JIW Why did you decide to start the Holy Flower Cup, and how does the contest showcase the best of Israeli cannabis?

Ophir Through the Israel Cannabis Association I ran entrepreneur meetups, industry conferences, and technology tours for international delegations. After COVID, Israel’s two main cannabis events had closed down, and nothing was bringing the global industry here anymore.

By mid-2023 I wanted to change that with an international cannabis event in Israel, modeled on Europe’s leading shows: a conference, a trade show, and a festival in one place. It would bring the global professional community back, support local businesses, and show the culture to the public.

On October 8th I was supposed to pitch the event to the Jaffa Port, then fly to Austria to meet potential partners and investors. The war began the day before, and that plan went with it.

Six months into the war, and a month and a half after I got home from reserve duty, it was clear we needed something to lift the spirits. We kept the festival side of the plan, and Holy Flower became Israel’s first cannabis cup.

Seven judges, a mix of medical patients and industry leaders and celebrities, scored 18 different strains. Before we built the questionnaire they used, I consulted with a dozen cannabis cup founders around the world. I even have a WhatsApp group of cup founders from around the world.

Cannabis cups bring the community together, and friendly competition pushes every grower to raise their game. In the past two years, while living in Spain, I took Holy Flower with me to the nicest cannabis club in the world (I think), and in the coming year I plan to bring it to the States.

JIW What are some of your duties as VP of Sales with Hefestus? How do you best connect with and understand the needs of clients and customers?

Ophir I lead Hefestus’s commercial work everywhere outside Israel, with a team of superstars across sales, service, and our partners in each market.

Hefestus has built packaging automation for the food industry for over 30 years. Our first pre-roll machine was a tailor-made solution for Bazelet, a medical cannabis producer in Israel that still runs our machinery today. Since then Hefestus has become the leading pre-roll machinery manufacturer, serving a good share of the biggest producers across the USA and the world.

I’m not the one on the floor fixing machines. My job is understanding what the customer is really after. I taste our customers’ products to understand what quality means to them. I ask a lot of questions. And I listen to my team, because they’re the ones who see every line up close.

JIW What have been some of the best conventions Hefestus has presented at?

Ophir MJBizCon in Las Vegas is the important one for us. It’s where we launch every new machine, because our largest customers come by with all their key decision makers.

It’s also the only week of the year our whole North America team is together in one place. This December we’re back at booth 22307.

JIW How does your Jewish identity play a role in your professional and personal life?

Ophir I love the Jewish heritage. It’s a very smart tradition, and it teaches us how to be better people and how to conduct ourselves well. I grew up Reform, in an English-speaking Reform community in Israel.

Since October 7th I’ve also learned how important the global Jewish community is. Being Israeli brings a lot of complicated moments, especially abroad. When you meet another Jew, at least some of those issues are already out of the way.

JIW Along with the groundbreaking research by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, how has Israel been a pioneer in cannabis research?

Ophir Professor Mechoulam isolated and identified THC in the 1960s. Decades later his team discovered anandamide, which opened up the whole field of the endocannabinoid system. He set the stage for a generation of Israeli researchers who are still doing incredible work today.

Dedi Meiri, Oded Shoseyov, and Nirit Bernstein have all done groundbreaking cannabis research. Israel also built one of the world’s earliest government-run medical cannabis programs, which gave researchers real patients and real clinical data years before most countries allowed it.

More broadly, Israel’s startup world in medtech and agritech has pushed hard into cannabis: genetics, cultivation, testing, and automation. A small country with a tight market has to build for the world from day one.

JIW What do you think the next few years hold for cannabis reform in Israel? Do you think it will ever be recreationally legal nationwide?

Ophir Israel moved early on medical cannabis, then slowed down. Personal use was decriminalized in 2019, and the medical system has been reformed more than once, but full adult-use legalization keeps stalling in the Knesset.

I think it will happen. The public support is there, the science is there, and the industry is ready. The question is political timing.

Until then, Israel’s strongest contribution will keep coming from what it exports: research, technology, and know-how.