Former Sequoia Partner Launches AI Startup to Automate Calendar Scheduling

New York: Kais Khimji has worked as a venture investor for many years. He was a partner at Sequoia Capital, a well-known venture capital firm. Now, he wants to be a startup founder. Recently, he announced his new idea: Blockit. This AI calendar app helps people schedule meetings more easily. It got $5 million from Sequoia, which shows their support.

Khimji believes Blockit can become a big business. He thinks it will make over a billion dollars in revenue. Unlike other apps that help with scheduling, Blockit can handle the whole process by itself. Khimji thinks the new AI technology is better than what other companies have tried before.

Blockit is different from Calendly, which requires users to share links for availability. With Blockit, AI agents can talk to each other. They make the meeting plans directly. Khimji said this teamwork is important because users often have trouble with their calendars not connecting.

Users can ask Blockit to help with schedules by including it in an email or messaging it on Slack. The AI negotiates the best time and place for meetings. Users just need to tell it their preferences. For example, they can say which meetings are important and which can be moved around.

Blockit can even learn from the tone of an email. If a user gets a formal email, they might want to prioritize that meeting. Khimji thinks this is a new way for AI to understand human needs better.

Right now, over 200 companies use Blockit, including a few well-known startups. The app is free for the first month. After that, it costs $1,000 a year for a single user and $5,000 a year for teams.