Superblocks Is Attempting To Democratize Software And App Development For The Masses

One of the most challenging aspects of running a successful healthcare organization is how quickly the enterprise often needs to adapt to changing technologies and update its IT infrastructure. This is especially true in the landscape of healthcare systems and hospitals, where organizations are increasingly reliant on emerging technologies to run their day-to-day services.

Superblocks is aiming to disrupt the game in this arena by providing enterprises of all types an easier means to build internal applications. Its platform enables individuals to rapidly build applications with minimal to no coding: users can simply use natural language to build out an app, edit it visually and can further make advanced refinements with code, if they desire. This means that even non-engineering or non-technical staff can easily build out customized internal tools and applications.

For healthcare organizations specifically, this has the potential to transform the way technology is approached and may help save hundreds of millions of dollars in annual IT costs.

Notably, studies indicate that the average hospital dedicates nearly $9.5 million towards its IT budget, taking into account hospitals and clinics of all sizes and forms; when looking at hospital IT expenses for systems with over 250 beds (alluding to most larger hospital systems in the country), the average budget is approximated to be closer to a whopping $33 million. A big portion of these dollars is often allocated to IT staff and engineers that are needed to develop mission critical applications and infrastructure.

These figures are jarring at a time when AI agents have made application development and maintenance easier than ever before. In fact, an entire micro-industry has emerged from this phenomenon known as “vibe coding”—referring to how consumers without much coding experience can interact with generative AI tools to easily create applications.

Many such platforms exist to enable code generation, including famed Claude by Anthropic, OpenAI’s Codex platform, and Cursor. These tools have revolutionized software development, as users can simply provide basic prompts to generate code and create complex applications.

But applications that are being built at an enterprise level and for larger organizations cannot be made casually; they require significant IT, compliance and regulatory oversight, and the ability to deeply understand the back-end infrastructure and modify it as needed. This is where Superblocks’ platform goes even further with its AI Agent Clark, which can help IT and enterprise teams build production-ready internal applications. Applications built with Clark can readily connect with existing APIs and private databases, are compatible with existing security and sign-on procedures and infrastructure, and are also built with enterprise grade security features in mind, such as audit logging.

Brad Menezes, co-founder and CEO of Superblocks, explains that he and his other co-founder (now CTO) Ran Ma, first thought of the idea when they realized that large companies were burning a lot of cash trying to just understand and build out their own internal application stacks; there was simply nothing on the market that could help ease enterprise level customized software. Menezes comments that “especially in healthcare, there has always been an IT constraint,” limiting what can ultimately be done for patients and constituents. Although “healthcare organizations often have very large IT teams, many are often missing hardcore CS backgrounds…with Superblocks, teams can develop entire enterprise applications without a hardcore coding background.”

Mamoon Hamid, Partner at Kleiner Perkins and key investor in Superblocks, explains that “custom internal software powers nearly every function within a business, yet it has remained time-consuming and costly to build. Superblocks is solving that with a programmable platform that gives employees everything they need to build internal apps, and automate workflows.” Hamid is known for his thoughtful and visionary counsel to founders, perhaps most notable for his early investments in Slack, Figma and Box.

Menezes explains that Clark is being leveraged for a variety of uses in healthcare settings. One organization is using it to develop patient intake software, an incredibly crucial aspect for any healthcare entity. Another is using it to optimize its core clinical operations, including to support back-office administrative applications. Another example is Synapse Health, an innovator in the durable medical equipment (DME) space, which adopted Superblocks’ platform early on; the company has leveraged Clark to replicate the work of nearly 5-7 engineers. Tim Frederick, chief technology officer at Synapse, explains that the platform has “unleashed our ability to build internal tools quickly while giving us the ability to maintain control and supportability.” He also describes how Superblocks’ capabilities have significantly augmented the integration of AI workflows for high-yield business needs, such as for the company’s customer service functions.

This type of technology has significant potential to disrupt and transform archaic IT infrastructure practices at healthcare organizations globally. Especially given that hospital systems typically run on razor-thin margins, the platform has the potential to significantly aid in improving workflows and tangibly freeing up engineering capacity.

Given the rapid success Superblocks has seen, scalability will be crucial, especially as the competition in the arena stiffens further. However, if executed with the customer in mind, there is indeed significant value that can be attained.