Building a unique asset inside a company, not just sales, turned out to be what made Patrick Bet-David's insurance business so attractive to buyers.

• He spent $10 million building new technology for his insurance company that didn't exist elsewhere in the industry.
• The buyer, a firm that had already acquired 200 companies, said they'd pay normal rates just for his sales, but wanted the technology specifically so they could roll it out across dozens of their other companies.
• That technology became the real reason his deal ranked among the buyer's best acquisitions, not the size of his revenue.
• His takeaway for other business owners: figure out what unique "moat" you can build that makes your company irreplaceable, not just profitable.

Outlook: Expect more emphasis in business circles on building proprietary tech or systems as the real driver of high acquisition value, rather than just revenue size.