Ask HN: What are the basics to starting a company?

You're asking a question that requires a book to answer. Such books are plentiful, for example http://www.nolo.com/products/form-your-own-limited-liability...

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).

An LLC isn't really the first step. For an LLC to help at all in limiting liability you have to keep your company finances separate from your personal finances, which you can't do until the business is making money. That said, an LLC is fairly easy to set up and lets you get a business bank account.

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.

Get customers.