I don’t believe this to be true at all; very early-stage startups could have a CTO who is doing much of the coding to get things off the ground.
Also, Fractional CTOs are a thing ;) Some companies can benefit from a CTO who is not full-time: for example, many medium-sized publishers. The CTO role and its functions are still necessary even if the company cannot afford to hire a full-time CTO or would rather commit that budget elsewhere.
And if you are 3 person startup and you are CTO , hire a DEV Team in [enter country].
code as a CTO But just for you to know , you are making a mistake, we all did.