Breaking news

From Venture Capital to AI Innovation: Kais Khimji Launches Blockit

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

January 23, 2026

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.

Follow THE FUTURE on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram

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.

The Future Forbes Realty Global Properties

Paramount Closes $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Deal, Creating Skydance Entertainment Giant

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 6, 2026

Paramount has completed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing together two of the most powerful names in media under a new combined company, Skydance. The deal, announced Tuesday, creates one of the largest entertainment mergers ever completed and reshapes the competitive landscape across streaming, film, television and cable.

A New Power Center In Global Entertainment

The combined company unites Paramount+ and HBO Max, alongside a broad portfolio of networks that includes CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central and Food Network. It also gives Skydance control over some of the industry’s most valuable franchises, including The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the DC Universe and Yellowstone.

Follow THE FUTURE on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram

For the industry, the scale of the transaction is as significant as the assets themselves. In an era defined by streaming competition and rising content costs, ownership of established intellectual property has become a strategic advantage akin to controlling a premium distribution network in a previous media cycle.

Ellison Expands His Influence

The merger places one of the world’s largest entertainment studios under the control of David Ellison, who only last year completed the combination of Skydance Media and Paramount. With this latest transaction, Ellison is accelerating his rise as one of Hollywood’s most influential executives.

The Ellison family remains Skydance’s largest shareholder, backed by the financial power of Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder and David Ellison’s father. That support gives the company considerable flexibility as it integrates two sprawling media businesses and seeks to compete more aggressively across platforms.

Legal Hurdles Cleared Before Closing

The deal’s completion follows settlements with a coalition of U.S. states and a Hollywood writers’ union, removing the principal legal obstacles that had threatened to delay or derail the merger.

Paramount first announced in February that it would pursue Warner Bros. Discovery after a bidding contest with Netflix, which had earlier struck its own agreement to acquire Warner Bros.’ film and television studios and streaming operations, excluding the cable networks. Paramount strengthened its offer by promising shareholders additional cash if the deal failed to close by a set deadline and by agreeing to cover the breakup fee owed to Netflix.

What Skydance Says Comes Next

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Ellison said in a statement. “From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere. Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences and rewards shareholders. We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”

Skydance said the combined company will generate nearly $70 billion in annual revenue. The company’s Class B shares are set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbol SKYD.