Technically speaking a pre-mine is when coins are allocated prior to mining.
Steem had no coins allocated in such a manner. What it had was mining that was theoretically open to anyone, but deliberately made obscure and technically challenging so relatively few ended up mining it. That setup allowed Steemit to mine 80% of the initial supply at relatively low cost.
What Dan wrote in his blog here is for all practical purposes exactly what happened during the Steem launch.
Fair enough.
though if I were a founder, id be thinking real hard about getting a place in antigua or costa rica or something and just chilling there.
Because "it was 'theoretically' open nudge nudge wink wink" doesn't really play that well with certain government types.
and id also be thinking real hard about taking that blog down.