As someone else said, squeeze the bulb while cranking. If it's fuel starvation and you can get it any fuel at all, it should start and run.

Any water in the filter? I learned that engines don't run on water.

I kept losing both engines on my trawler. I even lost both engines off Sandy Hook in rough seas. I'd bleed the engines, manage to get one to start, and it would quickly die. I removed the bleed screws on the engine filters and they'd be dry, no fuel. Long story short, I got one engine at a time to run long enough to get into Atlantic Highlands Marina where I fixed the problem permanently.

I decided to redo everything from the fuel tank to the engines. The first thing I found is that the fuel lines were the wrong size. Specs called for 3/8" and someone installed 5/16". Instead of one fuel line for each engine, both engines were feeding off of one fuel line. That one line went to an adapter on a fitting on the tank that reduced the opening to 1/4", and that was gunked up, effectively starving the engines of fuel.

So I ran one fuel line to each engine of the proper size, got rid of the adapters, installed two Filter Boss systems each with a pickup tube 3" off the bottom of the tank and used the old Racors as a fuel polishing system with a pickup 1/2" off the bottom of the tank. The Racors get all of the water and gunk in the 800 gallon tank and I've never had to change a Filter Boss filter, and have never lost an engine since, all the way from New Jersey to Georgia.

So bottom line, check to make sure your engine is getting the proper amount of fuel, and take nothing for granted.