Here is probably the easiest way to build a company that will get acquired:
Find a big B2B software as a service that exists right now that costs money and create a basic free version of it.
Then find a cofounder who complements your skillsets and has a very accomplished background (one that would look very impressive to YC Combinator). If you don't know anything about coding it should probably be a coder. If you can code on your own it should probably be someone who would be good at raising money. It is important to have a cofounder though because most of these VC's (and YC Combinator in particular) do not like investing in one man startups.
Apply to YC Combinator. They look at your skillset (showing how good of an a marketer you are will help a lot, they like that sort of thing), and they'll look at the market size for the business you are creating. Since you picked an existing B2B product, that already proves your market size is big enough. You'll revolutionize it by providing offering it for free which will allow you to create a platform for businesses that you can leverage for money later on. (Well you probably won't actually ever do that, but that's what they want to hear)
Now that you are at YC Combinator make a more polished version of that product, "gaining traction" (should be easy since you're offering it for free), and network with VC's to raise money.
Now that you have a more polished product (although still not perfect), and some traction (from people who are signing up just cause it's free), work on raising a seed round or a Series A. This should not be too difficult if you are showing large amounts of growth, especially since you came from YC Combinator (VC's use that as a big signal when deciding what to invest in).
Once you've raised a round of funding (maybe $500k-2 million) spare no expense hiring the absolute best employees you can find. This part is very important.
Have those newly hired employees continue to work on this product. Although there is a small possibility that this product will actually be successful, for the most part the product now only exists to prove to other companies that your team of people are very smart.
Still don't charge anything to make sure that you continue to grow. Overpay on marketing (think about how Groupon used to pay $5/email to affiliates) to ensure that you are growing at a fast rate.
You're probably burning through money at this point. Try to raise more money to repeat the above steps - if at this point VC's are still interested in investing in you, you might have a legitimate company on your hands - great job! If you are having trouble raising money you are now at the point where you need to get acquired. The VC companies that invested in you now have just as much skin in the game as you do (they probably own nearly half your company). Go to them and let them know you need to get acqui-hired. Big tech companies in the valley will see the awesome products your team is putting out and because they have no clue what they are doing one of them will offer you a 7-8 figure deal to sell your company. They aren't buying the company for your product, but for your "team". The VC's will help vouch for you and broker the deal since they are getting a big payday at the end.
That's the easiest way to sell a company for 7-8 figures. It works so well because everyone in Silicon Valley (like anywhere else) are a bunch of sheep. As soon as YC Combinator accepts you, all VC's will be interested in you (since you obviously are smart if YC Combinator accepted you), and all the big companies will be interested in acquiring your company for the talent since obviously you must know what you're doing since all of the VC's invested in your company.
I'd rather spend my time building a company that does awesome things and does NOT get acquired, but if you are solely looking to get acquired this is probably the easiest way to do so.
