# Magnus Kongsli Hillestad

> Magnus Kongsli Hillestad is the Norwegian co-founder and CEO of Sanity, a content infrastructure company. Previously a director at EQT Partners, with earlier roles at Arctic Securities and Boston Consulting Group, he began coding at 35 and helped turn an agency-built content platform into a software business. He moved to California in 2019 and now writes and speaks about structured content, company building and the information AI agents need to operate reliably.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Sanity
- **Organizations:** Sanity, EQT Partners, Arctic Securities, Boston Consulting Group
- **Nationality:** Norwegian
- **Education:** Master of Science in Corporate Finance, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Sanity, developed from the Bengler agency’s content platform., Led Sanity through its expansion from Norway into the US., Announced an $85 million Series C and Content Operating System launch in May 2025.

## Career timeline

- **2005** — Completed a Master of Science in Corporate Finance at NHH.
- **Before Sanity** — Worked at Boston Consulting Group, in corporate finance and M&A at Arctic Securities, and as a director at EQT Partners.
- **Age 35** — Began learning to code; experimented with Python and neural networks.
- **2017-2018** — Joined the founding team and helped transition the agency-originated Sanity platform into a dedicated software business; the founders committed fully in late 2017, and Hillestad dates the software-company transition to 2018.
- **2019** — Relocated to California with his family; co-founder Even Westvang also relocated while Simen Svale Skogsrud and Øyvind Rostad remained in Norway.
- **2025** — Announced Sanity’s Content Operating System and an $85 million Series C led by Bullhound Capital.
- **2026** — Published arguments for structured agent context and a five-layer context model.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Sanity, developed from the Bengler agency’s content platform.
- Led Sanity through its expansion from Norway into the US.
- Announced an $85 million Series C and Content Operating System launch in May 2025.
- Has invested in Heavybit, an investor in Sanity.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Published The five layers of agentic context on October 6, distinguishing canon, records, process, situation and memory.
- **2026-09** — Spoke at Sanity’s Everything NYC 2026 conference on September 9.
- **2026-07** — Appeared on CMSWire’s Digital Experience show to discuss content operating systems and agents.
- **2026-03** — Published Structure powers intelligence on March 3, arguing for governed, structured business information for agents.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnushillestad
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/mhillestad

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/magnus-hillestad
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-15