In the bustling Darla Moore School of Business, Andrew first caught local attention as a freshman managing a hedge fund—an impressive feat for someone at any age, especially for someone just starting college. Little did we all know, this was just the beginning of Andrew’s journey as a founder.
Andrew has been quietly but diligently building something truly transformative through Qatalyst Health. For those who share a passion for efficiency, time management, and optimization, Andrew’s journey of building Rosa by Qatalyst Health is nothing short of inspiring. A natural tinkerer and relentless innovator, Andrew exemplifies what it means to turn curiosity into tangible, real world impact.
What is your story?
I grew up in Atlanta and attended the University of South Carolina, majoring in finance. Early on, I joined the Finance Scholars Program, a selective track for students preparing for careers in investment banking and private equity. While most of my peers pursued traditional corporate paths, I was drawn to entrepreneurship and building something from the ground up. That interest led me to join a group of students launching a quantitative hedge fund, where I gained hands-on experience with financial modeling and business structuring.
To make money on the side, I took on financial modeling projects for lower middle-market buyouts. One of those opportunities, brought to me by my former professor Jeff Savage, involved evaluating financial inefficiencies in nursing homes. What started as a side project quickly turned into a major revelation that nursing homes were missing out on millions of dollars in reimbursements due to outdated processes.
That insight became the foundation of Qatalyst Health, a company I co-founded to help nursing homes recover lost reimbursements and optimize their financial operations. It wasn’t the path I originally envisioned for myself, but I realized I was more excited about solving real problems and having a direct impact than following a traditional finance career.
What is your biggest win as of late?
Securing a few facilities from one of the largest nursing home chains in the country has been a major milestone. The process required months of back-and-forth discussions, refining our pitch, and proving that Qatalyst Health could solve a real problem. Nursing homes have long struggled with inefficient reimbursement processes, and many facilities operate on razor-thin margins. Demonstrating how our platform could recover lost revenue without adding more administrative burden was key to winning over decision-makers.
More than just a business win, these deals validated that we’re solving a major financial pain point for the industry. Seeing our solution implemented at this scale proves that our approach works, and it’s opening the door to even larger opportunities.
How do you #GiveFirst to the BIC community?
The Boyd Innovation Center was instrumental in my journey, and I want other students to know that the same resources are available to them. I first got involved through an earlier version of what later evolved into ColaStarts, and since then, I’ve helped spread the word about the BIC on campus. A lot of students have great ideas but don’t know where to start. Connecting them with the right resources can be the push they need to take action.
Share a core memory from an experience at the BIC.
One of the most intense experiences I’ve had at the BIC was pulling a 27-hour work session before a major validation meeting. The night before, I accidentally reset key AWS settings, which caused critical system failures right as we were about to go live. I spent the entire night at BIC, from 9 a.m. one day until noon the next day, fixing the issue and making sure everything was operational in time for the meeting. Thankfully, we passed the validation test and launched on schedule. We also implemented continuous integration and continuous deployment controls, which established a more robust pipeline that prevents similar issues and strengthens the platform’s overall reliability.
Looking back, it makes for a great story, even though at the time, it was pure chaos. It’s what I call “type three fun”—brutal in the moment but rewarding in hindsight due to the clarity it brought and the improvements it drove in both process and product.
What is your biggest challenge right now?
Running a startup is like living Murphy’s Law, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. There’s always something unexpected that demands attention and no two days look the same. Early on, I used to think that once we hit a certain milestone, things would feel more stable, but now I see setbacks as part of the process. You just have to be willing to run through a wall, and then another, and another. The real challenge is endurance. It’s not about solving one big problem, it’s about having the mindset and energy to keep solving new ones every day.
Where are you finding success?
Success comes from leaning into challenges, even when they’re uncomfortable. The things that seem the hardest in the moment often turn out to be the ones that make the biggest impact. I’ve realized that doing what others aren’t willing to do gives us an edge. When there are ten other startups working toward the same goal, the differentiator isn’t just the product, it’s the effort you put in and the relationships you build.
For example, I’ve learned that there’s no substitute for showing up. It’s easy to rely on email and Zoom calls, but real progress happens when you’re in the room, having direct conversations and listening to people’s needs. Whether it’s driving hours to meet a facility administrator or taking extra time to understand their daily frustrations, those face-to-face interactions build trust and uncover insights that we would have never discovered remotely.
Early on, we didn’t even charge our first two clients because we knew their feedback was worth more than short-term revenue. Listening to customers, understanding their daily frustrations, and building real relationships is what continues to drive Qatalyst Health forward. Their input guided everything, from how we built the platform to how we positioned our value. That approach hasn’t changed. Constant feedback from customers keeps us sharp, ensuring that what we’re building isn’t just innovative, but truly useful.
What are you excited about?
We’re in the middle of rolling out new product features and onboarding more facilities, which is an exciting phase for Qatalyst Health. Growth is exciting in itself, but what makes startups so fun is the speed. In a corporate job, making even a small change can take months of approvals and red tape. In a startup, we can listen to customer feedback, build a feature, and release it in weeks. That agility enables you to see the impact of your work almost immediately, which makes this journey incredibly rewarding.
Andrew Nye, a recent UofSC graduate, started his entrepreneurial path in college by co-founding a hedge fund while also running his own consulting business, where he handled financial modeling for several equity raises, convertible note issuances, and buyouts. One project introduced him to the challenges of healthcare reimbursement, which inspired him to start Qatalyst Health and build better software for the long-term care industry.
