Start with 3 states:

The first day of voting should involve three states. This is not too many, but not too few. If we have too many states all at once, then lesser-known candidates will have no opportunity to engage retail politics to overcome the huge advantage of high name recognition and its associated initial financial support. On the other hand, no single state should get the amount of focus and influence that Iowa enjoys by being the lone state to go first every time.

Having three states vote on the same first day causes candidates to address issues with multiple states’ perspectives in mind. This three state arrangement (combined with the early states' delegate apportionment process described in the "Delegates" section) can also allow candidates to have multiple paths toward attaining some initial success - thus sustaining some candidacies past the first day's three contests. This likely will result in a larger number of states becoming a factor during the initial winnowing process.