Communication is greatly underemphasized in business schools today. Ideas are useless unless they can be effectively communicated, and a communicative style is an influential factor in creating a first impression. Communication skills are essential for every aspiring entrepreneur.

Though individual excellence abounds, teamwork is really what makes people and businesses successful. Most innovation is actually done in groups in which people can assume different roles and play off each others ideas. Gary relates some of his favorite motivational lessons he received as a child, including the difference between you and genius is about 8 hours of hard work.

Gary believes we all have a social responsibility not to be involved with companies we believe to be socially irresponsible. Unfortunately, the line between responsible and irresponsible is oftentimes gray and the decision becomes more of a judgment call.

Gary starts his top 10 list with seek out good advice from the loads you receive and rounds out list with graduate from Stanford and your future will be bright! Along the way, he advises to always maintain strong ethics and integrity and build strong and trusting relationships which are a great asset in good business.

David introduces Gary, his son, as educationally handicapped because he attended Harvard, rather than Stanford. Realizing the mistake after graduation, Gary moved to California and took a job in research in the computer science department at Stanford. He soon moved on to jobs as a system programmer and as a McKenzie consultant. Morgenthaler is not a family firm and initially they were adamantly against the idea of hiring a family member, but Gary was hired after he received an offer from a competitor. Gary explains that the firm's greed had overcome [its] objection to nepotism.

It is a challenge to recruit when you don't have money. The solution comes in strong leadership. The leader must create a strong sense of mission that the company idea is really important and entice people to join the team. When you don't have money, you must rely on your idea to do the recruiting.

There is no question that the economy is globalizing and that low-skill manufacturing is increasingly done overseas. Still, product design and development cannot be easily exported and, therefore, a sustainable advantage remains over foreign competition in these areas.

Cash is king. The days of free-flowing cash are over and VCs are now looking for companies that can do more with less money. David also stresses the importance of an unfair advantage in order to stay ahead of the competition. Additionally, be optimistic about your projections, but do not lie to the VCs because they will see through it.

When hiring employees, ask four questions: are their values compatible with the organization; are they think-type, people-type or situationally-intelligent; are they motivated by a desire to succeed with focus, intensity, and persistence; what skills do they have right now for the job?

The VC selection process is a sort of mating dance. A VC can identify promising business plans by focusing on the references and credentials of the team. Beyond the business plan, a VC looks for a quality presentation delivered by a strong and synchronous team.

Leadership is an increasingly important skill for entrepreneurs , but its education is difficult. David emphasizes that a leader should motivate and inspire people to perform extraordinary accomplishments. Gary adds that different people are motivated by different things and leadership has to be adaptive to match the individual.

Morgenthaler Ventures maintains its standard of ethical behavior by explicitly conveying to the managers that unethical behavior will not be tolerated. Life is too short to engage in corrupt dealing and honesty pays off in the end anyway. If ever put in a situation where you are pressed to do something immoral, resist and do all you can to stop it. If you can't stop it, find another job.

A comparative advantage puts a company in a position that is difficult for a competitor to reach. Intellectual property is key for establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage. A good test for determining whether a business concept has the potential for creating a competitive advantage is whether it is just a me too company that is copying another idea, because in that case, someone else likely has a competitive advantage over you.

While doing research at Stanford, Gary recognized that many problems with applications had to do with managing data and information. Gary co-founded his company, Ingres, with the aim of factoring out these common problems by creating systems level infrastructure.

Morgenthaler Ventures was formed in 1968, before there really was a VC industry. David Morgenthaler invested $3 million of his own money in new businesses and became the father of venture capital. He was also instrumental in the passing of the capital gains tax differential, which provides an incentive for entrepreneurship. He is now the founder of a $2 billion private equity firm.

Gary would like to impart to the audience all the wisdom he wishes someone had told him before he embarked on his career. He sets out a road map for his speech, planning to cover the topics of entrepreneurship, formation of teams, the importance of communications, self-discipline, and ethics.