Biography
Debbie is eBay's first eBay Certified Consultant and first Education Specialist Trained by eBay.
As Was, where Debbie is the Founder and CEO, became eBay's first Certified Service Provider in August 2004. |
 When Debbie Levitt was four years old in 1976, she decided that one of her major life goals would be to someday run her own company. To train for this, she hoarded office supplies from her father's law firm, making good use of legal, stenographer's, and while-you-were-out pads.
Debbie's first computer experience came in 1979 at age 7, learning BASIC programming on the Commodore PET at the State University of New York at Farmingdale. She became a desktop publisher in 1985 thanks to The Print Shop for the Apple II. Debbie got her first Mac computer in 1989, and remembers version 1.0 of most popular applications.
Debbie graduated Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts in 1993 with a Bachelors of Arts in Music, and then completed a certificate program in audio engineering. In April 1995, Debbie left her weekday job as a jazz booking agent AND her job as weekend manager at River Sound, the NYC recording studio co-owned by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.
Debbie celebrated her new freedom by pulling all-nighters to teach herself HTML. Stars shone in Debbie's eyes and the incidental background music swelled as she thought to herself, "I bet companies would pay people who really knew how to do this." As Was became a full-time endeavor after Debbie returned from her work as tour manager and sound engineer on the summer 1995 European tour of "The Jazz Passengers with special guest vocalist Debbie Harry."
Debbie's freelance writing also took off in the mid-1990s, including:
- Debbie was the first author of the 2,500-words-monthly "Internet Business" topic for Suite101.com, and wrote her column from May 1998 to December 2001.
- Debbie wrote the 400-words-weekly "Managing the IT Professional" newsletter for ITWorld.com (an IDG Company) from April 2001 until most ITWorld newsletters were discontinued in September 2002.
- Debbie wrote a 1,500-word article on As Was for EntreWorld.org, a foundation providing resources for entrepreneurs.
- Debbie authored part of a chapter in Small Internet Business for Dummies, an IDG book published February 1998 (by Greg Holden).
- Debbie helped with some of the content in eBay PowerSeller Million Dollar Ideas, a McGraw Hill book published 2007 (by Brad and Debra Schepp).
Debbie Levitt is a recognized expert on eBay, online and offline marketing, online selling, virtual companies, website trends and usability, domain names and associated legal issues. She has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Business Startups Magazine, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine's "Making Money on eBay" live internet radio show. You'll hear Debbie a few times a year being interviewed by Griff on his eBay Radio show.
Debbie's first group training experience was in 1996, when at age 24, she was retained to teach New York school teachers how to use the internet. In 1998, she developed an elective course for the Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, NM also about how to use the internet, including why gopher is so passé. Debbie took a few years away from speaking to navigate her company, As Was, through the Dot Com Crash and post-September 11th hard times.
Debbie lives in Tucson, Arizona with Rita the Jack Russell Terrier and Mickey the Cat. When not working or sleeping, Debbie enjoys fun and talented people like Eddie Izzard, Monty Python, Kate Bush, Flight of the Conchords, and Sparks. Debbie likes hiking, roller skating around conferences (where allowed), and looks forward to the first non-working vacation she has taken since 1994.
For a list of Debbie's presentations and appearances since 2003, visit the schedule and experience page.
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