strictly speaking, you need to use a verb somewhere to make it a sentence. This is why most would say "how do you start" instead of "How to start". How to start can be used as part of a secondary clause (how acts similar to "and" or "but"), or adverbial clause, as in "I want to know how to start..." Sometimes, people don't say the actual words "I want to know", but they are implied if not declared. It is only acceptable to omit the main part of the sentence (the actual subject and verb, as in "I want to know") in situations where it is extremely obvious and time or space are important and the use of a fully grammatical sentence is not all that important (like as part of an informal conversation or as input for a google search).