We've all heard the grim statistics on startup failure rates. Make sure you've found the "right it" by testing your hypothesis before investing countless dollars and hours pursuing your idea. Pretotyping and prototyping offer many ways to test a product or service with minimal build-out, use of resources, or emotional attachment.

Work with Kara to ensure that you’re addressing the problem with the best solution possible.

Kara Palamountain is a professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the president of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation. She has managed over 50 Kellogg field research teams conducting market entry analysis for medical technologies in over a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Prior to her work at the Northwestern Global Health Foundation and at Kellogg, Kara worked as a management consultant in Deloitte's Healthcare practice for over six years.