Like I have been interviewing some witnesses and noble steemians, today's guest on the show is Elizabeth Powell (@elipowell) the managing director of steemit Inc. She has been the managing director for over 6 months now after the founder Ned Scott (@ned) made a good decision to step aside so that Elizabeth can improve and promote app development on Steemit and also to attract more entrepreneurs.
I encourage you to read this interview with an open mind. Read to know what Elizabeth Powell and her team have for the community.
Can you tell the community how you first heard about Steem and what is your motivation since you joined?
I was working for an advertising firm in downtown Austin and met two women who worked at Steemit. One was wearing a Steemit t-shirt, so I asked, “What is Steemit?” I was very intrigued and had just recently been researching crypto. They happened to be hiring a Head of Communications, so I sent my resume and got the job two weeks later.
When our roadmap began to focus on other R&D and not so much steemit.com, and the crypto winter blew in, we knew all efforts needed to go back to steemit.com. We never stopped working on the Steem blockchain, and were doing minimal updates to steemit.com. We needed to steer the ship back to steemit.com and protect the greatest asset we had. Therefore, I am super motivated to make steemit.com the best experience for our users. I am so excited for the future of steemit.com and Steem.
As the Managing Director of Steem, what are the challenges being encountered and what are you doing to get pass those challenges?
- Right now my biggest challenge is working with a skeletal staff and no real marketing budget. Coming from a marketing background, I struggle with not being able to tell the world our Steemit story. And we have so many great features to implement, and Smart Media Tokens (SMTs), if we had more engineers we could ship faster than ever before. But we are working past these challenges by using more community contributions.
What were you into before you joined the Steem community?
- I received a Journalism degree from Texas A&M and moved to Austin to work for advertising agencies for 20 years. I mostly did account management and new business development. What is cool about working in that business is I was able to touch many diverse business categories. It taught me to learn a new industry very quickly because you don’t want to have your clients ask you a question that you have no answer.
How do you feel being the only female on the team?
- Well, I am not the only female on the team :). Christi White is our Head of Operations and she has been with Steemit since 2017. She was Head of Human Resources, but when we downsized, we took her people skills combined with her past accounting skills and so now she keeps the books and the team straight!
For how long have you been on the Crypto space?
- I started reading articles and researching crypto back in 2017, so not very long at all!
How did you switch from being the head of communication to being Steem Managing Director?
- After company layoffs, I worked with Ned and the Board of Directors to create a new road map, and Mission, Vision and Values. I stepped in to lead the transition and worked very closely with the engineering team. We are a tight group and we respect each other very much. I think because of how things transpired, the Board felt it would be good for me to execute the roadmap and keep Steemit alive. I had many meetings with Ned and the Board, for about a month and we all agreed this was the best next step.
Since you became the M.D of Steem, have there been any progress? Are goals met?
- Yes! Our main goals were: 1) Cost reduction, 2) Advertising. We have reduced infrastructure costs by 44% and our advertising program is increasing in revenue every month. So, not only did we drastically reduce costs, we are now seeing real revenue. A first in Steemit’s history.
As the M.D what are your fears as regards Steem?
- We have been in the crypto space for over 3 years. With the bear market and other UI issues, we have seen a decline in daily active users and overall poor user retention on steemit.com. I feel we are in a race to get steemit.com where it needs to be and launch SMT’s. Not really a fear, more like a strong motivation.
What have you been doing to restore the Steem ecosystem economically?
- We continue to support the Dapps and community by developing things like MIRA, the Steem Proposal System, supporting the Steem Foundation and bringing communities and SMT’s for all projects to use.
What are the things you and your team are currently or are working on?
- We are working on the advertising program to make it the best experience and revenue stream for the organization. The dev team is now working on SMT’s and communities. :)
Is there any updates on SMTs, Hf21, SPS, EIP, Reward AIP that you want the community to know about?
- We will have some new posts from @steemitblog regarding SMT’s and communities. There are already some great posts up regarding HF21, SPS, EIP, etc. I know @andrachy is working on some additional posts and videos regarding all of these that are less technical.
Most of my friends have lost hope of SMT cause of the months of multiple announcement, what's your say regarding that?
- SMT’s are happening. I wouldn’t say that if I wasn’t 100% confident. Tell your friends I said so.
Has the CEO completely dumped the team and the project?
Ned is now Executive Chairman on the Board of Directors. He is still involved as we meet once a week, and mostly 2x per week. He continues to attend company meetings, including project-specific meetings, like SMTs with the blockchain team.
After SMT any other major change or announcement for steem?
- Ha! Let’s just stick with SMT’s and communities. But yes, we do have other ideas / thoughts for what’s to come, but staying laser focused right now is all we can do.
How have you been relating with the devs and community?
Yes! I know just enough to be dangerous. Ha! I attend engineering stand ups every day and review GitHub daily, etc. I may have submitted some code, as well. :)
I have many great friends in the community and love to listen to their ideas and have reached out for opinions and help many times. I also enjoy appearing on various Discord shows, it’s a great group out there.
How good are the ads placed on Steemit helping the growth of Steem community?
- As we continue to build out the ad program, I see a lot of potential when communities are launched. Allowing communities to leverage advertising will further support their business/cause. It also allows us to run ads for our Dapps, giving them more exposure.
What are the things you see as Steem selling point presently?
- Steem provides a scalable blockchain protocol for publicly accessible and immutable content, along with a fast and fee-less token which enables people to earn the currency by using their brain (what can be called “Proof-of-Brain”). Steemit is the first and most-used blockchain based app in the world. The Steem blockchain is the only social blockchain that grows communities and makes immediate revenue streams possible for users by rewarding them for sharing content. Steem-based apps get a boost from the hundreds of thousands of users already plugged into the Steem blockchain. And our accounts our FREE, the only blockchain app offering this, period.
What is your opinion on the rate of Steem this year compared to last year?
- This time last year we were at $1.28 compared to $.41. I think the fact we are holding steady is a good sign. Again, highly motivated to ship the next round ASAP!
Any advice to steemians?
- We love our community and understand their frustrations. I just really hope Steemians stick with us, because we have proven the last six months that we can deliver, we can make things happen and now that we are course-corrected, we will deliver on things like SMTs/communities and this will once again be the best place to bring and grow your community.
Thanks for your time. I'm sure the community will love this. 
Until next time I remain my humble self @dhavey. Do have a wonderful day. Love you all.
Help a soul today so that the world will be a better place for you and for me.
I remain my humble self @dhavey
Thanks again @dhavey for another great interview.
Thanks @elipowell for sharing the info. I think refocusing effort on Steemit is a great move. Despite all the other dapps with shiny look and features, I've always tend to come back to Steemit and wanted it to improve. It is important that its UI and UX are top notch for new users who are discovering Steem for the first time. Another important point is probably the account creation bit which, in my opinion, is a huge blocker, followed by the low RC for new accounts.
Nice to hear you are a bit technical as well :-D
You are welcome @quochuy
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I start to have good faith toward Elisabeth and I believe SMT will become a reality!
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Let's wait for the reality.
This is all I need to read to understand that nothing has fundamentally changed. If you can't market, you die.
Cg
Ha! Don't just conclude like that.
Excellent interview, @dhavey and it was good to hear from @elipowell again and her goals for the future! Bravo!
It's good to hear from her. Thanks for the comment.
When should we expect the first financial report?
This is for her to answer. Thanks for stopping by.
I think the hf21 is going to have some huge effect on steemian with low sp, how do you intend to solve that ? steemian with no steem power may be forced to stop creating content due to this 50 50 distribution of authorm and curator reward..
that's a long interview, well I think she is very honest of her words. I'm glad they still keep on working about that HF21 so that the poor user won't affect too much.
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Not so long...
So... who's the CEO now? Is there one?
Also good interview
Not naming her CEO is just a more PC transition so Ned can save some face. She's running day to day ops, she laid out and is executing the current vision, she's the CEO for all intents and purposes.
When a CEO goes to "Be on the board" That just means they still have a lot of stock or stake in the company so, they're still there, but they basically got fired. Seen it 100 times working in startups. Everyone can feel free to forget Ned.
I'm more interested to know exactly WHO is on 'The Board' we hear so much about!! and some background into Steem Incs company profile which seems very mysterious. How can people be expected to invest in such a mysterious company?
Well to be clear, buying Steem is not investing in Steemit Inc. That's a private company that I'm sure has stocks and a board etc.
Anyone can create a company and launch a product on the Steem blockchain. They were just the first.
With their stake size and the way they got it, the waters on this are muddy for sure, but that's officially the structure.