James Lindsay

About

James Lindsay is the CEO of Trava Health, where he is working to make GLP-1 care simple and affordable. He is based in San Francisco and grew up in the Pacific Northwest.

Before Trava, James spent about two years at Mochi Health, a bootstrapped and profitable telehealth company that connects patients, providers, and compounding pharmacies. He joined in April 2024 and held engineering, operations, and business development leadership roles before serving as Chief Operating Officer. He helped scale the company to $100M+ ARR, leading the teams across engineering, operations, growth, data, product, and design that built its marketplace infrastructure.

He started his career as a mechanical and propulsion engineer. He worked on thermal design for the Tesla Model 3, on rocket engine development at Blue Origin, and led R&D fuel systems work for nuclear fusion at Zap Energy. He also founded Odegaard Engineering, an engineering consultancy. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.

He still thinks about companies the way he thought about engines: as systems. Both end with looking at a graph that almost shows what you want and making a decision anyway.

Experience

1. Trava Health2026 to present
   Chief Executive Officer

   Making GLP-1 care simple and affordable.

2. Mochi Health2024 to 2026
   Chief Operating Officer; previously Head of Engineering, Operations, and Business Development

   Helped scale a three-sided telehealth marketplace to $100M+ ARR.

3. Odegaard EngineeringFounder
   Engineering consulting

   Aerospace and outdoor sporting equipment engineering.

4. Zap EnergyNuclear fusion
   Technical Manager, R&D Fuel Systems
5. Blue OriginRockets
   Propulsion engineering, rocket engine development
6. TeslaModel 3
   Thermal design engineering
7. University of WashingtonEducation
   B.S., Mechanical Engineering

Writing

I write about GLP-1 access, telehealth operations, and what engineering taught me about running companies. Longer pieces go on Substack, and shorter ones on LinkedIn.

Contact

The best way to reach me is a message on LinkedIn.