I've read some other threads and tried their fixes, but no go. I've tried:
disabling scan for plugins in preferences
run vlc-cache-gen on the VLC plugins directory
add "Everyone" to the permissions list on the VLC folder
deleting VLC completely including the settings and reinstalling 3.0.8
So far, VLC takes about 6-8 seconds before the window appears.
My other PC was on an older VLC version (I forget which version). I used the help menu to update VLC and it updated to 3.0.7.1. All of the sudden, VLC is extremely slow at start up.