I have to disagree with the crowd on this one, do not start in 2nd/3rd.
Why ?
You have to slip the clutch more to build up speed before you can fully engage (i.e. lift off) it. A slipping clutch is a wearing clutch and a worn clutch is spendy, nasty, and prone to all sorts of other issues when "Mr Mechanic" starts to work on it. I have £2K (about $3K) invested in my clutch so I know
Try the following.
Start in 1st, gentle throttle - maybe even only idle to get moving. Rev gently to 2.5K to avoid wheelspin - getting this right feels nice.
This means you can fully lift off the clutch peddle asap.
Then press down fully and shift to 3rd, let the engine go down to 1K and lift off the clutch peddle again fully. There will be less jerk because the speed difference (and also clutch wear) is minimised.
Then Gently accelerate. Then repeat and change to 4th/5th depending on your chosen cruise speed.
With this approach you get out of the high-rev scenario quickly and also your clutch is full in / out as much as possible, so less slip and less wear.
The key here is clutch out at as low RPM as your engine can take given the circumstances.