I wonder if any companies know/care how much this kind of behavior negatively impacts people's perception of them.
One thing I've heard from larger companies is they often do not say anything because almost anything can be construed in to a lawsuit. I think this is a bit of a copout, and I think in most cases, it's just easier to do nothing, but the lawsuit thing probably isn't a total non-issue for some companies either.
"Thank you for your time and interest. We were faced with a tough choice with a lot of candidates, and we ultimately went with another candidate for this position" seems as inoffensive and bland as could be - why these aren't sent out it, I don't know.
As with any startup, we are a small team doing a million things, and sometimes things (such as interview rounds) may take longer than they should because a critical need for the business was prioritized.
> be prepared to be left hanging
If you work on these technologies, the future's a bit iffy for now whoever you work for. I'm guessing though, based on Graeme Rocher's comments a week ago [1], that he'll roll Groovy into Grails to make a single project, and get funding for both as a rump team under one project management, himself.
The reason you haven't heard back yet is because the most recent interview round is still on-going and a decision has not been reached yet. You should expect to hear back this week.