BS. If you can make an elevator pitch for investors, you can make one for friends and family. If you can't explain to mortals what you do in 30 seconds, I'd say that's a bit of a red flag.

"I run/work for a small company. We're developing software that helps people in business XX do YY smarter. It's a really exciting project, next month we're going to unveil a new feature we think is going to change the way people in business XX think about their work."

.. there is no brand equity attached to our companies. (...) all you have to say is “I work at Goldman Sachs” and you have satisfied this human desire to be perceived as successful ...

I've met someone who works at Goldman Sachs. I know that to be a sign of successfulness, but I have no idea what he does there. He told me, and I still don't know. If his goal is to be an interesting conversation partner, he'd need as much of a pitch as the guy working for "Blippy".

Sometimes at the end of a long day, the last thing we want to do in our “socializing time” is run through another pitch.

Bleh. Socializing is about who you are. If you spend 10 hours a day working on a start-up, that work is part of who you are. Otherwise, you're just a guy with a 10-hours black hole in his day.