The meaning is the same but with very subtle difference. Generally, start from.... means whatever you are starting has a specific location that you can point at exactly. start with... whatever the thing is abstract and has no physical point to begin. Let's start with the alphabet... no specific letter that you are going to begin with. Let's start from the alphabet... You have a starting point to begin with, most probably with the Letter A first. You start from here..... "here" indicates you have an precise location. You start from scratch.... "scratch" means the beginning location You start from him... "him is a point where you begin" You start with him... "with" is a more polite way to say it. (akin to "I talk with you" vs "I talk to you") You start with the soup, never "you start from the soup" when applying to eating. " I took linguistics with Mr. Smith -- I took the class with somebody named Mr. Smith I took linguistics from Mr. Smith -- I took the class that Mr. Smith teaches. So you need more context to know which one is which. Please give me all names starting WITH "C" -- means give all the names with a "C" as the first letter. Please give me all names starting FROM "C" -- means give all names first starting with "C" and continue to "Z". i.e. No names starting with "A", "B" This is why English is so difficult to learn and master. Too many exceptions!

"Let's start from" to me sounds like a location type word should follow whereas "let's start with" sounds more non-location words (although there are probably instances where the two phrases are interchangeable)

"Start from" is used more with going somewhere, literally or figuratively. You start from your house. You start from the beginning. You start up from your seat. "Start with" is used more to indicate things you use for doing something. You start with a big needle and embroidery thread when you tat. You start with a pot of water when you make spaghetti. You start with the alphabet when you learn to read. In some cases, you could see a situation as doing something OR going somewhere, so you could use either word. You start WITH the outside fork when you eat a fancy meal, meaning that you are doing something (eating the meal), and you use all the forks, starting with the outside one. Or you start FROM the outside fork, meaning that you are (figuratively) going somewhere (working your way along the row of forks), and you start from the outside one and go toward the plate.

They aren't completely interchangeable. Let's start from here. ('with' cannot be used) Let's start from the scratch. ('with cannot be used)

You can say either in different contexts. In American English at least, "start with" is used more. Hope this helped!