My Dad told me only to do as many steps as it took to get the bike up to speed, hop on, drop the clutch, left foot on peg, right leg swing over with throttle wide open, lean forwards to put front wheel back down.
With strong legs, my average was 5 steps!
I practiced on my D14 & then a load of bigger bikes away from watching eyes, but still dropped a Goldie 3 times from the front. all for the same start. I was demoted to the back & just concentrated on not being lapped.