#231: Magnus Hillestad, Co-Founder & CEO of Sanity, a Unique Developer-Focused Content Platform, on Choosing Co-Founders, Raising Millions in Venture Capital, and Building a Fast-Growing Startup

Magnus is CEO and co-founder of Sanity.io, the American-Norwegian Content Platform company that is reinventing the content space with its unique customizable and collaborative approach. Having worked in investment banking and private equity, Magnus started coding at age 35 and left his finance career, and later joining Sanity.io as co-founder. Sanity now has almost 40 employees and serves more than 4 billion API calls per month. Magnus is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some of the Topics Covered by Magnus Hillestad in this Episode

• What Sanity does and how it got started
• What Sanity was trying to do differently from other CMS systems early on
• Why you should think about content as data
• How Sanity was acquiring customers in the early days and why it lends itself to a bottom-up business model
• Having a global perspective
• Why Magnus decided to move to the United States
• How Magnus and his Co-Founders decided to work together even after Magnus initially said no to joining the team
• Magnus' advice around selecting Co-Founders and setting up founder agreements correctly
• The fundraising experience for Magnus, raising a $1M Pre-Seed, $2.4M Seed, and a Series A
• Why Magnus and his team raised their Series A when they had $2M ARR
• How Magnus recharges and why his team pays part of having a private personal trainer for everyone in the company

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