As always must upvote. The way I see it now for steem is a slow grind to success.
However if speculation picks up a bit and steem pumps, Steemit, Inc will have huge amounts of cash. They won't mess it up the second time. Node costs are really low now, and won't increase by much.
A few months of selling will allow them to grow like they were before the bear and there's no ceiling once that happens.
There is a lot of good things that happen for Steem with the prices rises. Upvotes become larger, attracting more users. More liquidity attracts more devs, esp with the WPS in place. More resources to buidl for witnesses.