Kais Khimji, a former partner at Sequoia Capital, has launched a new AI startup called Blockit, which aims to automate calendar scheduling by using artificial intelligence to negotiate meeting times on users’ behalf. Khimji, who spent over a decade as a venture investor, has long wanted to become a founder—joining a growing trend of former Sequoia partners like David Velez, who founded Nubank. Now, he’s bringing to life an idea he first explored during his time at Harvard over a decade ago. Blockit has secured a $5 million seed round led by Sequoia, a strong endorsement of its potential. Pat Grady, a general partner at Sequoia and co-steward of the investment, praised Khimji’s vision, stating that Blockit has the potential to become a billion-dollar business. While calendar automation is not new—previous attempts like Clara Labs and x.ai failed to gain lasting traction—Khimji believes that recent advances in large language models (LLMs) give Blockit a significant edge. Unlike Calendly, which relies on users sharing links to find availability, Blockit’s AI agents can autonomously negotiate meeting times without human intervention. At its core, Blockit functions as an AI-powered social network for time. Khimji describes the problem simply: “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’s solution is to let AI agents from each user communicate directly to find a mutually agreeable time and location. Users can trigger the agent by copying it into an email or messaging it in Slack. Once engaged, the AI handles the entire scheduling process, factoring in preferences such as which meetings are non-negotiable and which can be rescheduled. For example, if a user’s calendar is packed, the agent can be instructed to skip lunch if needed. The system also learns from context. Users can train it to prioritize meetings based on tone—such as treating a request ending with “Best regards” as higher priority than one signed “Cheers.” This ability to interpret intent and hierarchy is central to Blockit’s approach, aligning with what venture firm Foundation Capital calls “context graphs”—the hidden logic behind human decisions that AI can now capture and act upon. Blockit is already being used by over 200 organizations, including AI startup Together.ai, fintech Brex (recently acquired), robotics company Rogo, and top venture capital firms like a16z, Accel, and Index. The app is available for free for 30 days, after which individual users pay $1,000 annually, and teams can license the service for $5,000 per year.