Elvina Beck is an American entrepreneur. She is known for co-founding Californian

coliving Co-living is a residential community living model that accommodates three or more biologically unrelated people living in the same dwelling unit. Generally coliving is a type of intentional community that provides shared housing for people with s ...

company PodShare, where she also serves as CEO.

Early life and education

Beck was born in Moscow, USSR in 1985. In 1990 Beck emigrated to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with her parents, Elvira and Antony. After an initial period of support from the Russian community in Brooklyn (a period which Beck has credited as formative in her positive views of community and sharing), the family moved to Livingston,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Beck was educated at Livingston High School, and

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

, Malibu, graduating in Political Science in 2008.

Transition to videography

In her early twenties, growing disaffected with the lack of control over her career that she felt as an actress and model, Beck taught herself how to operate a camera and to edit video.In her career as a camera operator, Beck has worked for, among others,

Randi Zuckerberg Randi Jayne Zuckerberg (born February 28, 1982) is an American businesswoman. She is the former director of market development and spokesperson for Facebook, and a sister of the company's co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Prior to working at ...

, Avril Lavigne and

Maxim Magazine ''Maxim'' is an international men's magazine, devised and launched in the UK in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997, and prominent for its photography of actors, singers, and female models whose careers are at a current peak. ''Maxim'' ...

PodShare

In 2012, recognizing the lack of available, short-term housing for transitioners and freelancers, Beck co-founded

company PodShare with her father. The company opened its first location in Hollywood,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and has since added locations in

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

, Arts District,

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

and Westwood in that city. In July 2019, PodShare opened its first location outside of

Tendernob The Tendernob (or TenderNob) is an area in San Francisco, California between Nob Hill area to the north and the Tenderloin to the south. The name is a portmanteau of Tenderloin and Nob Hill, and is often used by realtors for marketing purpose ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. PodShare has flexible residency, and a floorplan that excludes privacy and forces interactions between guests, which Beck calls "collisions".

Other pursuits

Since 2015, Beck has served as president on the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council. In 2019, she was re-elected to serve a second 4-year term. Beck is an advocate for the unsheltered homeless of Los Angeles. In recognition of her ongoing non-profit work to improve the lives of the homeless, as well as the success of her startup PodShare in addressing urban affordability, Beck received the 2020 Stratiscope Impact Makers Award at

Los Angeles City Hall Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Cente ...

on January 29, 2020.

References

External links

Official website for Elvina Beck

Official website for PodShare
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Elvina 1985 births Living people People from Livingston, New Jersey 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople Soviet emigrants to the United States Pepperdine University alumni Livingston High School (New Jersey) alumni