Pendulum Therapeutics appointed Amy Errett, founder and CEO of Madison Reed, to its board of directors on June 25, 2026, marking a significant recruitment that pairs consumer brand expertise with the San Francisco biotech company's accelerating push into mainstream health and wellness. The appointment reflects growing confidence in the commercial viability of microbiome therapeutics as awareness of gut health expands beyond niche medical circles into metabolic, digestive, and women's health categories.
Pendulum, founded in 2012 by scientists from Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins, brought Errett to its board to leverage her proven ability to scale mission-driven consumer brands and connect with ordinary consumers. Chief Executive Colleen Cutcliffe praised Errett's track record of building beloved brands that challenge the status quo, while Chairman Hugh Martin noted that her expertise in brand building and consumer engagement would accelerate the company's mission. No search firm was mentioned in the announcement. Errett herself cited Pendulum's scientific rigor, groundbreaking microbiome work, and commitment to accessibility as the primary draw to the opportunity.
Errett brings more than three decades of business experience across finance, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. She founded The Spectrem Group, a strategic consulting firm, which she sold to NFO, an IPG subsidiary, before joining E*Trade's senior management team as Chief Asset Gathering Officer, where she ran a $200 million business diversifying the company beyond brokerage. She served as CEO of Olivia, repositioning its travel business as a complete lifestyle brand, and won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Northern California. Most notably, Errett opened and led the Bay Area office of Maveron, the consumer-focused venture capital firm co-founded by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, before founding Madison Reed in 2014. Under her leadership, Madison Reed has grown into one of the most recognized direct-to-consumer beauty brands in the US, serving millions through an omnichannel model that now includes more than 80 physical retail locations. Errett holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in liberal arts from the University of Connecticut.
Pendulum Therapeutics, backed by investors including Sequoia Capital, Meritech Capital, True Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Mayo Clinic, has raised $111 million as of its most recent Series C funding round in 2021. The company pioneered live Akkermansia muciniphila, a keystone bacterial strain designed to strengthen gut lining and support metabolic balance, and achieved the distinction of bringing Pendulum Glucose Control to market as the first and only probiotic clinically proven to reduce A1C in people with Type 2 diabetes, with results published in the BMJ in 2020. Pendulum now ranks as the number one gastroenterologist recommended brand of Akkermansia-based probiotics and recently launched Gut Fuel, a fiber-based prebiotic powder. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with approximately 11 to 50 employees.
Errett's appointment suggests confidence that microbiome science is transitioning from specialized biotech niche into consumer health mainstream. Her particular expertise in direct-to-consumer brand scaling and retail expansion through omnichannel networks directly addresses a critical question facing Pendulum: how to move clinically validated probiotic products beyond early adopters into mass consumer awareness. The timing appears calculated, with Pendulum facing increasing consumer awareness of microbiome's health implications and competition from established supplement makers and other microbiome startups. Errett's prior experience at both Maveron and as founder suggests she can bridge the divide between venture investor expectations and the sustained operational discipline required to scale a health brand consumer business. Her long-standing philanthropic work, including more than 21 years on GLIDE's board, may also appeal to Pendulum's mission-driven positioning.
