Not necessarily, if you have the gear for rapid prototyping including 3D metal printing, you can crank out a few molds fairly fast as well as simpler metal parts. Anything up to and including a 1911.
Now, if you want to go into really high volume high speed production, yes, you will have to get dies, molds, etc., purpose made the old fashioned way or at least use CNC machining.
What is the current volume break point on protoype vs. real parts?
Hopefully it is much higher than when I retired >10 yr ago.