If I'm hiring for a Product designer role, can I expect candidates to have UX research experience?

Shipping components are expensive and unless you have the volume to buy in quantity vs small bundles is when you'll be able to shop around for a better deal. For example, Uline offers packaging in bundles of 8 or 25 as their minimum, this is stock item for which they order several thousands units of to keep the cost down. For you it fits because you can buy in small amounts at a time. However, if you have a need for 1000 at least or more units then buying from Uline is really expensive compared to what you could buy them for. Uline is a major distributor with a 45-50% markup on their items (give or take) as they have large warehousing and infrastructures. If you are ready to move to the next level, first find the correct material name for each packaging component, and look for suppliers of that particular item. Search websites likehttp://www.thomasnet.com/ for suppliers. Or go through a packaging broker instead of a distributor, like Landsberg Orora, or Ernest Packaging, and they can do all the leg work for you and still save money. Additionally, I know your drawing is not to scale, but there seems to be excess empty air space, if that is true then you can customize your packaging per exactly your needs, which will help to further bring the cost down. An engineer should take a look at your current situation because there is more at play than just shipping components - method of shipping, weight, weather condition, materials thickness etc all play a roll and can all contribute to cost saving while making the whole thing function better. This question is common enough that I've written tutorials on it http://howtobuypackaging.com/how-to-buy-packaging-part-1-determining-your-packaging-needs/.

You have to be careful on selecting your co-founder. I know it's an already cliché to mention it, but selecting one is like selecting a spouse to marry. You need to know the person first, and even some investors and accelerators dismiss automatically startups because the founders didn't meet before working together in the startup. If you're doing a tech startup, the co-founder should have a technical background if you don't have it. That will save you a lot of money when you're bootstrapping as well as making sure you deploy a great product as soon as possible. Once you want to work with someone, my best advice is to hire them to do a project or a task inside the startup. More than words, you need to see them in action and that way you can evaluate your chemistry as a team. When you already worked the details and decided to create a startup together, you need to be smart about the plans. You need to sign a partnership agreement and put the equity in a vesting option. In Silicon Valley, the standard vesting period is 4 years with a one year cliff. After one year, the founders fully own of the 25% of their shares. That means if they leave the company before the first year, they will not have equity in the company. Having all that in mind, I think it will help you select the best co-founder possible and also be a better bet to investors if you ever decide to raise money. I hope it helps!

Engagement matters most. Engagement is actually a function of great product and great distribution. Engagement is thought-of mostly as a product issue but in many cases, it also expresses itself as a distribution problem particularly where there is no possibility for a "single player" experience (marketplaces, feedback loops, anything attempting to be inherently social) If you have sustained engagement (a product experience loved by users) you will be successful, limited only by the potential number of people in the world that need the experience you provide and growing at a rate closely correlated to your distribution channels. Inefficient distribution is easier to optimize for then insufficient product. So to this extent, product matters more. But available distribution channels (or more accurately, the unavailable distribution tactics) also can define a company's fundraising options, and more definitively, the overall cultural and corporate DNA of the organization that forms around product & distribution. This is the best, most generalized answer I can provide to your question. Happy to talk to you and provide you a more contextually relevant answer to your own circumstances.

Does it need to be in metal for a prototype? If not, do a 3d printed model and, if needed, wrap it in metal sheet/foil. There is no cheap way to do a production quality prototype.

This is a great question and an important one as well. I would start by identifying: Who is your target market? How will they use your product? On the go? On their laptop or on their mobile device? What kind of technology does your product need? Can it be built as a simple website or does in need to be an app (i.e. you need push notifications, integration with other mobile apps, etc). On the other hand, how much time and budget do you have? Typically a responsive website is faster and cheaper to build than an app and will get you out the door faster.