It's possible to start with no visual state, just by assigning a state name which is not reflected in your component.
In the example above, the first event configuration row is set to start from none:
transitions: [
"next : none > a",
"next : a > b > c",
"back : a < b < c"
]
As this state doesn't have any visual counterpart, the component starts in an unresolved state, and only updates once moving from state none to state a.