I'd say the time for sharpening the saw was before you started the company. The next opportunity to invest into best practices / long-term is when the company actually has some traction.
The entire point of sharpening the saw is that it is continual though. It doesn't have to be a major investment or long-term, in fact it explicitly references "Daily Self-Renewal". I believe the original comment branch just meant don't worry about "what's applicable to the CTO".
