CTOs are the new PANDAs 12 years ago
It's true that for some startups, it's hard to start without a product, but that's rare. A perfect example would be any of the the "fake-it-till-you-make-it" startup success stories out there, who launch a crappy MVP with just some front, and do the work manually on the back until they get some paying customers and can build the actual product that'll do the work for them.