A Bold Transition From Investor to Startup Founder
Kais Khimji, who built a storied career as a venture investor and served as a partner at Sequoia Capital, is now turning his entrepreneurial vision into reality. Much like fellow Sequoia alumni, including David Vélez of Nubank, Khimji has long harbored ambitions of founding a startup. The result is Blockit, an AI-driven calendar scheduling platform that reimagines how busy professionals manage their time—a concept that traces back to Khimji’s early days as a Harvard student.
Securing a Confident Investment
Blockit did not launch quietly. In a clear vote of confidence, Sequoia Capital led the company’s $5 million seed round. Pat Grady, Sequoia’s General Partner, asserted in a blog post that Blockit has the potential to evolve into a business with over $1 billion in revenue, and that Khimji is the right catalyst to drive this growth.
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Reinventing Scheduling With Advanced AI
While several startups have ventured into automated scheduling, Khimji believes that Blockit leverages breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) to far surpass the capabilities of its predecessors, like Clara Labs and x.ai. Unlike the category leader Calendly, Blockit’s AI agents are designed to manage the entire scheduling process—negotiating meeting times and preferences autonomously—without requiring manual link sharing between users.
An AI Ecosystem for Time Management
Co-founded with John Hahn, whose experience spans influential calendar products such as Timeful, Google Calendar, and Clockwise, Blockit aims to create an AI-powered social network centered on time. The platform enables AI agents to converse directly to find mutually suitable meeting slots, eliminating the common back-and-forth of emails. Users can simply copy the Blockit agent in their emails or message it via Slack to have the bot manage the logistics of meeting schedules.
A Personalized Assistant in the Digital Age
Blockit functions like a virtual executive assistant, capable of adapting to personalized scheduling nuances.” By providing detailed instructions on meeting priorities—such as designating nonnegotiable appointments versus flexible ones—the system can tailor its scheduling. The AI even prioritizes meetings based on the tone of an email, as illustrated by its ability to favor formal requests over casual ones.
Context Graphs and Big Data Potential
Blockit leverages the concept of “context graphs,” a term popularized by Foundation Capital investors Jaya Gupta and Ashu Garg in their analysis of AI’s future in business. By capturing the underlying rationale behind scheduling decisions, Blockit taps into a multibillion-dollar opportunity of transforming implicit human logic into actionable business intelligence.
Early Adoption by Leading Firms
Already, Blockit has earned the trust of more than 200 organizations, including innovative companies like Together.ai, the fintech leader Brex, and robotics pioneer Rogo. Venture firms such as a16z, Accel, and Index have also come on board. The platform is available on a free 30-day trial, with pricing set at $1,000 per annum for individuals and $5,000 for team licenses, supporting multiple users.
The Future of Intelligent Scheduling
Kais Khimji is poised to redefine professional scheduling using advanced AI—transforming an essential, yet inefficient, aspect of work life into a streamlined and dynamic process. Blockit represents not just a technological innovation, but a shift in how businesses can effectively manage time in a data-driven world.
