Is a single strand of rna with all the right nucleotides to self reproduce the only starting point for life? I feel like there must be alternatives- perhaps a

Is a single strand of rna with all the right nucleotides to self reproduce the only starting point for life? I feel like there must be alternatives- perhaps a whole network of simpler organisms that each could do a small piece of a complete replication. I’m not a biologist so I can’t say- but notably, neither is the author (he’s an astronomer). I’d like to hear the point of view of a biologist on this.