Startups are often described through moments like late nights, breakthrough wins, make-or-break meetings. I’ve had those. I once spent 27 hours at the Boyd Innovation Center rebuilding our AWS setup after a critical system failure the day before we had an integration validation call to ensure everything functioned correctly. But the part that matters more than the chaos is what happens after. The pressure doesn’t stop. The problems keep shifting. And resilience becomes less about a single moment, and more about how you choose to keep moving forward.
At Qatalyst Health, that’s what resilience has looked like. Not a defining story, but a steady habit of staying focused when things don’t go as planned.
Redefining Progress When the Plan Breaks
In the beginning, I thought things would eventually calm down and after a few key wins, we’d find our rhythm and hit some kind of stride. But the more we grew, the more I realized that stability isn’t something you arrived at, it was something you had to create in the middle of constant change.
That shift in thinking changed everything for me. I stopped expecting certainty and started building systems, habits, and a mindset that could hold steady when things got unpredictable. Progress stopped looking like clean milestones and started looking like being able to navigate setbacks without losing momentum.
Trusting Your Gut Is a Skill to Embrace
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned as a founder is how to listen to my gut and how to recognize when I’ve ignored it. Looking back, the decisions I regret most weren’t based on bad logic. They were moments where something felt off, and I convinced myself to push through anyway.
Over time, I’ve started to pay more attention to the signals that stick. When an idea keeps resurfacing or a hesitation lingers longer than it should, I’ve learned to take it seriously. That persistence usually means there’s something I haven’t fully unpacked yet and often is where I end up uncovering valuable insight.
Gut instinct isn’t necessarily an impulse. IIt’s learning to trust the part of you that’s been quietly paying attention all along. That part works in the background, tracking patterns, noticing inconsistencies, and remembering what has worked before and what hasn’t. Even when the path forward isn’t clear, that internal record is still there, guiding you toward something you might not be able to explain yet, but still know to be true.
Choosing the Hard Work That Moves Things Forward
Some of the biggest wins we’ve had didn’t come from perfect strategy or flawless execution. They came from being willing to do the things other startups skip like long drives to rural facilities, face-to-face conversations instead of Zoom calls, and sitting with users while they clicked through the product and watching where they got stuck.
Because these efforts are often considered unscalable and don’t necessarily translate into traditional metrics, many startups skip them. But these were exactly what moved Qatalyst Health forward because they helped build real trust. And in a risk-averse industry like healthcare, that trust is what unlocks momentum.
Showing up and solving the problems that matter most, even when the work is inconvenient, slow, or exhausting builds a strong foundation. Because when ten other startups are chasing the same goal, being the one that sticks with the hard stuff is a valuable differentiator.
Learning to Work With Pressure, Not Against It
There’s no point in this journey where things start running smoothly. Even wins add new pressure. A signed contract means a higher level of service. A new feature launch raises expectations. That pressure stacks up fast, and if you’re not ready for it, it can derail your focus.
So for me, resilience isn’t about pushing through nonstop or pretending the pressure doesn’t get to you. It’s about recognizing that setbacks are often where the most growth happens, both personally and professionally.
Startup life is continuous, not discrete. There’s no off-switch. There’s always another task, another problem, another wall to run through. Over time, I’ve stopped seeing that as a sign something’s wrong. It’s just part of the job and often it’s the part that pushes us to level up. Resilience means shifting out of survival mode and learning to see setbacks as turning points that, over time, move you forward in profound ways.
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.
