I would really like to agree with this description because it does capture part of the human element of hearing someones dream, but it misses one key element of scenario. You're chatting with them as a friend, whereas it is part of a VC's professional responsibility to take a clear position with founders. Each pitch I hear is an investment of time – mine and the founder's. Neither one of us have much incentive to drag it out if it is really not going to happen.
One thing to note that may be non-obvious… Typically when I provide a detailed reason for the pass – regardless of if it's team, market, strategy, etc. – I don't exactly expect to receive the response "that's a great point we haven't considered, maybe it won't work out for us." Instead, I expect that the response will be a challenge to the point's I have made. Sometimes valid, but most often it comes down to a matter of perspective, but it is unproductive to engage in email debate with every founder where we don't pursue an investment in their company. It comes comes down to the tradeoff between professional responsibility and limitations of my time.
Yes, I was sloppy in using the term VC to refer to investors generally, my comments were more targeted at angels who I generally viewed as less explicitly professional in their investing profile. With a true VC at the seed stage, I would set the bar of professionalism at a prompt and explicit desision after the pitch and/or partner meeting. Anything less is a sign the VC firm is insufficiently efficient in its own processes to be agood partner. Later stage there is more data and a bigger check to write so I'd expect the decision to take a bit longer.
One thing to note that may be non-obvious… Typically when I provide a detailed reason for the pass – regardless of if it's team, market, strategy, etc. – I don't exactly expect to receive the response "that's a great point we haven't considered, maybe it won't work out for us." Instead, I expect that the response will be a challenge to the point's I have made. Sometimes valid, but most often it comes down to a matter of perspective, but it is unproductive to engage in email debate with every founder where we don't pursue an investment in their company. It comes comes down to the tradeoff between professional responsibility and limitations of my time.