>>>and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading Wow. That's right out of the later playbook of Edward Bernays. Set up a fictional committee that "endorses" something in order to enhance its marketing.
I think the point is less about social proof here and more about understanding that a good portion of rejection from investors and prospects could simply be the way you are pitching elevates you above their level, and their natural ego -based response will be to reject it, find holes in it, etc... If you want to succeed at pitching investors or finding customers, it would do you well to check your vanity at the door,…
A way to refine that is to say, when you pitch to elevate you above your level, you are challenging the investor or prospect and probably leaking out contempt. The investor or prospect is likely to reject your pitch to answer that challenge.
If there are no challenge, then this kind of byplay does not distract from the epic awesomeness of the idea.
"... focus less on what you created and more on what it will do for them." <-- Ha! That deepens the understanding of "Customer Development." If you're caught up with the Jungian shadows to demand credit, then you won't really try to understand user benefit or user needs since you put yourself first ahead of the customer. Cool.