A startup founder who sold 2 companies says entrepreneurs should quit trying to sell their businesses if they want to become self-made millionaires - here's what they should do instead

Walker Sands

In less than 20 years, Silicon Valley veteran Godard Abel has built and sold two companies for hundreds of millions of dollars.

His first company, BigMachines, sold to Oracle for over $400 million in 2013.

Just three short years after BigMachine's sale, Abel was in acquisition talks again. This time, it was for his new software platform company, SteelBrick.

In 2016, Abel sold SteelBrick to Salesforce for a reported $360 million.

Now, Abel is building yet another new company. His third startup is business reviewing site G2Crowd, which raised $45 million in five years from investors including Accel, LinkedIn, and Chicago Ventures.

In tackling his latest venture, Abel has spent a lot of time considering what makes a company an attractive investment to a prospective buyer. As entrepreneurs clamor to Silicon Valley in hopes of becoming self-made millionaires, Abel says that he sees startup founders making the same mistakes again and again as they attempt to sell their companies.

In an interview with Business Insider, Abel outlined the top five critical errors entrepreneurs make as they consider potential buyers for their companies: