# Sanchali Pal

> Sanchali Pal is the Founder and CEO of Commons (formerly Joro), an Oakland-based climate action app that connects personal spending data to carbon footprints and rewards users for making sustainable choices. A Princeton and Harvard Business School alumna who spent six years tracking her own carbon footprint in a spreadsheet before building the app to scale that insight for everyone, she has grown Commons to 450,000+ community members, raised $14.7M including a $10M Series A backed by Sequoia Capital and Jay-Z's Arrive, earned a TIME100 Most Influential Companies listing, and is on a mission to prove that climate action and financial wellbeing are the same thing.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Commons
- **Organizations:** Commons (formerly Joro), Dalberg Global Development Advisors, Tesla, Princeton Entrepreneurship Council, MIT Climate Portal
- **From:** Boston area, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA in Economics, Princeton University, MBA, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2022 (as Joro), Apple App of the Day 2022, Fortune #Impact20 List 2023

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Graduated Princeton with BA in Economics; began personally tracking carbon footprint in a spreadsheet after watching Food, Inc.
- **2012-2017** — Joined Dalberg Global Development Advisors, working on sustainable economic development in India, East Africa, and beyond
- **2015** — Moved solo to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to establish Dalberg's new office; grew it to 5 staff with $1M ARR within one year
- **2016** — Enrolled at Harvard Business School MBA program
- **2017** — Worked at Tesla on Market Access for international expansion strategy, focusing on Powerwall and Powerpack
- **2018** — Founded Joro as a solo founder during final year of Harvard MBA
- **2019** — Raised $1M pre-seed round from Sequoia Capital via cold email to Princeton alumnus Bryan Schreier
- **2020** — Launched Joro app publicly in April; raised $2.5M seed round led by Sequoia Capital
- **2022** — Joro named TIME100 Most Influential Company; named Apple App of the Day; raised $10M Series A from Sequoia, Arrive (Jay-Z's Roc Nation), Norrsken VC, Incite, and Mike Einziger
- **2023** — Rebranded Joro to Commons; named to Fortune #Impact20 list
- **2024-2025** — Continued scaling Commons to 450,000+ community members across iOS and Android

## Achievements

- TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2022 (as Joro)
- Apple App of the Day 2022
- Fortune #Impact20 List 2023
- Raised $14.7M total funding including $10M Series A backed by Sequoia Capital and Jay-Z's Arrive
- Grew Commons to 450,000+ community members
- Users reported 20% average carbon footprint reduction and ~$200/month in savings
- Solo female founder who pitched and closed Sequoia Capital via cold email
- Established Dalberg's Addis Ababa office from scratch, reaching $1M ARR in one year
- Featured on Princeton Alumni Weekly, TechCrunch, TIME, Fortune, Business Insider, Fast Company
- Connected 50,000+ brands to sustainable ratings in app

## Latest updates

- **2023-03** — Rebranded Joro to Commons, framing the rebrand around making climate change feel 'real-life, human, present, and solvable'
- **2023-01** — Named to Fortune #Impact20 list for making it easy for consumers to use spending for good
- **2022-10** — Raised $10M Series A from Sequoia Capital, Arrive (Jay-Z's Roc Nation), Norrsken VC, Incite, and Mike Einziger (Incubus)
- **2022-04** — Named Apple App of the Day
- **2022-03** — Joro named to TIME100 Most Influential Companies list

## Links

- Website: https://thecommons.earth
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sanchalipal
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sanchalipal
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanchali_pal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commonsearth/about/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sanchali-pal
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13