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Linda Yaccarino has been appointed as chief executive of a telehealth start-up that offers weight loss medication, weeks after her shock departure from the helm of Elon Musk’s X.

Yaccarino stepped down unexpectedly from her chief executive role at X in July, after two years attempting to claw back advertising dollars while also contending with Musk’s testy relationship with marketers. 

In a statement on Tuesday, Miami-based eMed Population Health said Yaccarino was joining the company’s mission to “make safe, effective, and sustainable chronic care accessible directly through an all-in-one, digital-first experience”. 

The little-known digital group is focused on health management for GLP-1 and GIP users, at a time when demand for anti-obesity and diabetes drugs such as Ozempic has skyrocketed.

The company said that Yaccarino was a “sought-after leader” with a “powerful presence and the undeniable ability to negotiate new partnerships [and] lead and drive transformational change”. 

Yaccarino’s departure from X came several months after the social media company was acquired by the billionaire entrepreneur’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI, in a move that insiders say sidelined her internally. 

A Madison Avenue veteran, Yaccarino risked many of her relationships in the advertising industry when she publicly backed X’s crusade to sue multiple brands and a marketing trade body on antitrust grounds, arguing that they had colluded to boycott the platform. 

While some brands returned to the platform as a result, helping to boost X’s sales numbers, others in the industry complained privately that they felt pressured to return. Yaccarino repeatedly denied the characterisation that she strong-armed marketers to spend on the platform while in the role. 

Meanwhile, relations between Musk and Yaccarino soured over time, according to four people familiar with the tensions. 

Musk felt Yaccarino had failed to be transparent about the company’s status with advertisers and put a gloss on reality, the people said. About a year into her time at X, he pressured her to more quickly restore the platform to financial health, giving her ultimatums, the people said. 

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Once Musk returned his focus to X after his work at US President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency came to an end, he also started making unilateral decisions that blindsided her, some of the people said.

Nevertheless, Yaccarino, a self-proclaimed advocate of “free speech”, remained publicly loyal to her former boss throughout her X tenure.

“The healthcare industry has been disrupted by technology, but not yet completely transformed by it,” Yaccarino said in a statement on Tuesday. “There is an opportunity to combine technology, lifestyle, and data in a new powerful way through the digital channels that impact consumers directly in ways that have never been done before.” 

She added that eMed was “well-positioned” to be a “tenacious leader” that would reshape the space.