As explained in the article:

  Says Nick Mehta, another one of the first scouts, “They
  definitely left it open to us but told us to think about the
  impact on the entrepreneur. We were told we should tell the
  entrepreneur. But they told us to make sure the entrepreneur
  thinks about it before they broadcast that Sequoia is an
  investor because of the signaling effect if Sequoia didn’t
  invest later on.”