Former Sequoia Partner Launches AI Scheduling Startup, Blockit, Backed by $5 Million Seed Round
A new contender has entered the crowded AI scheduling space. Blockit, founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Kais Khimji, aims to revolutionize how meetings are arranged, leveraging advances in large language models (LLMs) and securing a $5 million seed round led by his former employer.
Khimji, like other ex-Sequoia partners such as David Vélez—founder of Nubank—harbored a long-held ambition to build a startup. He announced on Thursday the revival of a concept first explored during his time as a student at Harvard University, resulting in the launch of Blockit.
“Blockit has a chance to become a $1Bn+ revenue business, and Kais will make sure it gets there,” stated Pat Grady, Sequoia’s general partner and co-steward, in a recent blog post, signaling strong confidence in the venture.
The scheduling market has seen numerous attempts at automation, but Khimji believes Blockit’s AI agents offer a significant leap forward. Unlike previous iterations, including now-defunct startups Clara Labs and x.ai—whose domain name is now owned by Elon Musk’s AI company—Blockit aims for seamless, efficient scheduling powered by cutting-edge LLMs.
Blockit differentiates itself from the current market leader, Calendly, which relies on users sharing links to indicate availability. Instead, Blockit envisions its AI agents autonomously handling the entire scheduling process, navigating the complexities of human preferences without requiring direct user intervention.
Co-founded with John Hahn, who brings extensive experience from calendar products like Timeful, Google Calendar, and Clockwise, Blockit is building what Khimji describes as an “AI social network for people’s time.” He explained, “It always felt very odd. I have a time database—my calendar. You have a time database—your calendar, and our databases just can’t talk to each other.”
Blockit seeks to bridge this disconnection by enabling direct communication between users’ AI agents to negotiate meeting times, eliminating the endless chain of back-and-forth emails. Users can initiate the process by simply copying the Blockit agent on an email or messaging it via Slack. The agent then manages all logistical details, finding a mutually agreeable time and location based on participant preferences.
The system is designed to function with the nuance of a human executive assistant. Users provide instructions regarding their priorities—identifying nonnegotiable meetings and those that can be adjusted based on daily needs. “Sometimes my calendar is crazy, so I need to skip lunch, and the agent needs to know that it’s okay to skip lunch,” Khimji noted.
Furthermore, Blockit’s AI can learn to prioritize meetings based on the tone of the request. For example, a formal closing like “Best regards” might be given precedence over a casual “Cheers.” This capability aligns with the concept of context graphs, highlighted by Foundation Capital partners Jaya Gupta and Ashu Garg as a multibillion-dollar opportunity for AI to capture the underlying reasoning behind business decisions.
Currently, Blockit is being utilized by over 200 companies, including AI startup Together.ai, fintech company Brex, and robotics firm Rogo, as well as venture capital firms a16z, Accel, and Index. The application offers a 30-day free trial, followed by an annual subscription fee of $1,000 for individual users and $5,000 for team licenses with multiple user support.
