This Indian-origin founder turned 400 employees into millionaires after selling startup for $3.7 billion

When Jyoti Bansal sold his software startup for $3.7 billion in 2017, he turned 400 of his employees into millionaires. The San Francisco-based entrepreneur — who was born in India — said that selling AppDynamics was "the hardest decision” of his career but he did it with his employees in mind, CNBC Make It reported.

The startup had developed a reputation for helping big companies fix their "wonky apps" and it was days away from going public when communications tech giant Cisco offered to buy the business for $3.7 billion. Bansal said he would have become wealthy either way but accepting Cisco's offer meant a better future for many of his nearly 1,200 employees. But selling the company he had founded in 2008 was not a joyous occasion for him, it was the “saddest day”.

"We announced the sale, and then we had a huge party at our office in San Francisco. Folks from Cisco were there. It was a very happy celebration," the 46-year-old told CNBC. "But walking home after, I was sad and depressed. I spent nine years of my life fully dedicated to what we were building there. Suddenly, it’s the end of a chapter... That’s the bittersweet part of selling your company. It’s a great outcome in a lot of ways, but it’s the end of a chapter, or end of a book, in many ways too. I was kind of lost."

Bansal added that he really enjoyed building the company, creating products, solving problems, competing in the market, and every other aspect of company building that I’d gone through. It was intense and stressful, but I really enjoyed it. I also felt like we didn’t fully finish what we could’ve done," he said.