Ask HN: What are the basics to starting a company?
What are the basics that someone would know about starting a company such as registering it as an LLC, etc.? Also, what about filing patents to secure intellectual property? Any tips?
The same goes for patents, for example http://www.nolo.com/products/patent-it-yourself-pat.html (although the very fact that you think about patents to "secure intellectual property" betrays a naïveté about how those things work in real life. If you don't have tens of thousands of dollars (at a minimum) to spare for a patent lawsuit, then obtaining a patent is pointless).
Patents are costly and take years to be approved.
The best way to secure IP is to use copyright (as simple as noting it's copyrighted) and if you have a logo, add a "TM" to it. You can register your copyrights and trademarks down the road.
IANAL.
I think step 1 is validating and/or building an idea/MVP and getting customers.