Hi Scott
Yes, in my years of experience, that has worked the best on Lycoming's I have owned and flew. In fact, on the couple Mooney's for hot starts, it worked best with mixture in and just a touch of fuel.
With this one, I've had pretty good luck with cold starts but sometimes not. I think it's temperamental on how many "seconds" I give it fuel. If just right, it fires immediately, if not, I never know if it needs more or if I gave it too much. On hot starts, that's another story. No matter what approach, lengthy cranking is necessary.
In Continentals, of which I've had many of my own, a little diff, especially in Cessna turbo models. Many times, depending on how hot, I run the fuel pump a few minutes with mixture out to get rid of vapor or get cooler fuel (whatever it is that makes it start) and also start with mixture in. Usually, one revolution and it's running. Lately, on normally aspirated IO's, I start with no fuel and mixture in, and pump the throttle while cranking and it always works. Why? I have no idea. The guy that owned it did so, I tried it and, low and behold, it works. And it has 2 of the Continentals:-(
Thanks