Carmen
Leiser
Director/CEO at Movi Collective
"Leading Without Extracting: A New Model of Power, Capital, and Community"
"Leading Without Extracting: A New Model of Power, Capital, and Community"
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Session: Leading Without Extracting: A New Model of Power, Capital, and Community
Movi began as a question, not a company: What if professional and financial ecosystems were designed around trust, reciprocity, and long-term judgment instead of transactions, status, and extraction? In the aftermath of the financial crisis, its founders—senior leaders from global finance—set out to test whether a different kind of network could produce better outcomes for people and capital.This talk shares what we’ve learned from building Movi as a live experiment in collective intelligence. Movi brings together founders, operators, investors, and executives across fintech, technology, and creative industries into intentionally designed environments where pitching is removed, relationships are non-transactional, and diversity of perspective is essential. We believe that no single person holds the full picture. Better decisions emerge when systems are designed to surface insight across lived experience, roles, and disciplines.
Drawing on psychology, human-centered design, and real-world community building, Carmen Leiser explores how Movi’s values—reciprocity, collective intelligence, and the inseparability of personal and professional growth—are transforming how leaders connect, decide, and deploy capital. Paradoxically, by removing transactions from the room, Movi has become a powerful engine for high-quality collaboration, conviction, and deal flow.
This session reframes leadership, networks, and capital as design challenges. Attendees will leave with a new mental model for building ecosystems that compound trust, improve signal quality, and create durable value without burnout, performative networking, or short-term extraction.
Key Takeaways
- How to recognize and exit extractive systems in tech and venture and what reciprocal, trust-based alternatives actually look like in practice
- Why collective intelligence outperforms individual intelligence, and how women can intentionally design networks that surface better insight and support
- How to build and leverage high-trust relationships without transactional networking, pitching, or constant self-promotion
- Why personal growth and professional success are inseparable, especially for women navigating leadership, founding, or career transitions
- Practical principles and tips for designing human-centered environments (teams, communities, and ecosystems) that support clarity, resilience, and long-term impact
Bio
Carmen Leiser is a psychologist, Stanford-trained human-centered engineer, and community builder working at the intersection of fintech, venture, and human systems. She is the Director of Movi, a trust-first collective originally founded by senior leaders from JPMorgan Chase as an experiment in redesigning professional networks around reciprocity, collective intelligence, and long-term value creation.Carmen has lectured at Stanford University on human-centered AI and spoken at the Stanford d.school, and has led strategy and design across academia, industry, and startups. Her work explores how non-transactional, high-trust ecosystems paradoxically outperform traditional deal-driven models—producing better decisions, stronger founders, and more durable outcomes.
She speaks to founders, investors, and senior leaders about building systems where trust compounds, weak ties become a strategic advantage, and capital follows conviction rather than pressure.
