> In its early stages, the only thing a startup “absolutely needs” is traction; traction will have to happen before everything else; before funding, before media exposure, and now before co-founders as well.

Well, the author just described a good portion of the startup scene which do many of these things before traction. Traction happens because of media exposure, which happens because of funding, etc.

> and now before co-founders as well

If the founder is the CTO, yes. Otherwise, how can you get traction without a working product. I don't get it.