Our History
Legacy
Starwell builds on four generations of entrepreneurship, capital stewardship, and civic leadership - across Los Angeles, New York, and Tel Aviv.
Max Factor
The entrepreneurial root of the family traces to Max Factor, who built one of the defining consumer brands of the 20th century. From a single Los Angeles shop, he transformed the global cosmetics industry through invention, craftsmanship, and an uncompromising standard of quality - proof that enduring businesses are built product by product, customer by customer.
David M. Heyman
The tradition of disciplined capital stewardship runs through David M. Heyman, a New York financier and philanthropist who led the New York Foundation for decades. He treated capital as an instrument of long-term responsibility - to institutions, to communities, and to the generations that follow.
Real assets, two cities
The family’s real estate roots run in parallel on both sides of the ocean. In Los Angeles, Herb Glaser - attorney turned developer - built Glaser Development Company into a commercial real estate developer across Southern California and the Western United States, spanning logistics centers, warehouses, and multifamily properties, alongside decades of leadership in the city’s civic and Jewish institutions. In Tel Aviv, the Buchman family built a textile enterprise and converted it into real estate holdings that grew with the city itself. That tradition continues today through Doron Kochavi, attorney and real estate developer.
Starwell
Starwell is the modern expression of these roots: a private holding company that acquires and builds operating businesses, develops real assets, and allocates capital for the long term. The underlying values are inherited, not invented - integrity, patient ownership, and the responsibility to build things that endure.