What is the perfect start if you're playing optimally?

[VirtualDinero]

I'm talking about things that you should always do at the start of a game if you know you are going to play perfectly.

1. Pause the game
2. Buy the maximum amount of stock you can afford from your own company
3. Set up a maximum salary for yourself as CEO
4. Burrow the maximum amount of money for your company

What else?

[counting]

I don't think there is an universal optimal start. There are so many ways to achieve different goals with different settings, some actions may only work in certain situation, and some for others.

Pause the game is probably the thing if you are deep thinker; Buying your own companies' stock at the very beginning sometimes isn't the best way if you are trying to tank and manipulate your stock price in early game, then buy back later at very low price; Set maximum salary probably only helps if you try to set personal wealth as part of the goals, and it would hurt your companies stock performance in most situations and most of the time slow your expansion at early stage (especially at higher difficulty with low starting capital, also invest money in building HQ first when it can be used somewhere else); Borrowing from banks mostly is for low starting capital, sometimes it's not the best option at the beginning of the game, but a bit later when there's enough leverage and your are ready to expand.

But there are indeed somethings best to do earlier than later, like R&D centers since time is the essence and catching up is hard at higher difficulty and you want to play the manufacturing game. Or find high traffic index spots in the city and block other AIs if you want to play the retail game. Each different goal probably will force players to take different actions early on.