This isn't a harsh policy – it is simply an effective way to meter a limited resource (your time). Clearly, the number of times you say 'yes' and it evolves into something productive tends to support this position.

I've always found your immediate nos very thoughtful of my time.

Dudu

P.S. The discussion part of the posts load very slow to an Israeli user (the post itself loads in 2 seconds while the discussion comes up after ~10) – FYI.

I would love to see examples of your polite nos. Are they a canned response or do you customize the no every time?

A quick no is a very polite form of communication. It is not harsh at all.
Providing a tidbit of feedback and a non boilerplate response is over the top.
Everybody has to say no. You can not always say yes.
I think Brad is trying to remind people how to do it/best practice.
The worst is a mealy mouthed non-committal response followed by no response.
Yes is great, no is fine, maybe is a killer

Just piping in to say this post is highly correlated with a decision making (optimal time versus choice) post I was pulling together today.

Your spin on maximizing availability is well noted. Your time is valuable, your decisions must be rapid to preserve as much of this precious resource for topics/folks/conversations of high value to you.

Big fan of rational decision making, albeit I'm flippant & easily distracted by incredible future trends. It's the emotional twist on rational decisions which manifests our style.

I usually get very nice notes back from PR people after I take the 20 seconds to compose and send a No Thanks response to their pitches. But I still have to be picky about which ones I take this time for. Otherwise I'd be composing my little notes for spammers.

This is a great post, Brad. We all struggle with how and where we invest our time – and that struggle never ends (my 84 year old, long retired father still complains that he doesn't have enough time to get to all his projects). I wrote a post to help explain why VCs want to see everything and have the open communication, even if they invest in only 1-2 new deals a year: http://bostonvcblog.typepad.com/vc/2008/05/vcs-an… I just hope all those polite "no's" I have to deliver are gracious and respectful as well.

As an entrepreneur who has raised money before, this topic is of great interest. My number one grief against VCs was their inability to a) say no clearly b) say it in a timely fashion and c) in a respectful way.

I agree with Brad 100% and applaud the clarity. I'd love other VC's to sign an oath to do the same, and entrepreneurs to hold them to it.

I don't buy the argument that vc's need to keep the door open by saying maybe or not saying anything. That's a sorry way to maintain a relationship. Better get the respect of the team by saying no, and if you can't say exactly why, say : "I can't tell you exactly why but no." Sure it would be better if you can tell us exactly why, but we'd rather have the clarity rather than false ambiguity.

I also think there are different types of no : No — no, not now — no, not for me — no but maybe x,y,z and no, never. We will understand these and appreciate your help.

If you're hesitant to say no to someone that came to you via a friend/contact, you are deluding yourself into thinking they will understand the unspoken and your friendship will be okay. We feed off of hope and look for connections — even if they seem unlikely etc. Friendships are strained when a favor (like introducing someone to a VC) is not clearly met (eg no feedback) Meeting a friend's contact but not providing clarity is like offering to take care of a friend's dog, only to let the dog run away. Yeah you helped, but … you didn't.

Also don't forget that engineers that may be pitching you may not be able to understand the subtleties that you think you are communicating by not saying no.

It sounds like the ratio of no's to yes's is out of balance.

In fact, I'd argue that yes's should be the 60 secs or less, and the no's should be longer if you can sense something is there but its just not clear yet. A pitch to me is just a novelty, and if you really want to pitch I'll just observe your pitch to your target customer and if they are sold then fine. I care more about the person and how well they know me and why I'm interested before I have to signal that I'm interested.

I noticed that no one mentioned the "yes that turned to no overnight" scenario. Goes something like, "Yeah, we are interested in coordinating something with you, someone will give you a call or e-mail this week." No calls or e-mails follow. When inquired about the delay, you get a surprised huh and the Shaggy line: "It wasnt me"

I would say that's quite rare, but it happened to me.. It wasnt part a VC pitch, but more in the realm of coordinating a multilateral cross-border transaction.

Like Nancy Reagan said, Just Say No!