From Refugee to Tech Founder: Revolutionize Safe Co-Living

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/07/30

Kal Merhi, founder of iROOMit, turned his lived experience of displacement and housing instability into a thriving AI-powered roommate-matching platform. With limited formal education and no government funding, Merhi bootstrapped iROOMit to address the affordability crisis in urban housing. The platform integrates ID verification, scam prevention, and secure rent transactions, growing from 1,200 to over 7,000 users monthly. With ambitious global expansion plans, Merhi envisions co-living as a long-term housing solution. His mission is not just technological but personal: to create safe, accessible spaces for those struggling to find a place to call home.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Today we’re here with Kal Merhi, founder of iROOMit, an AI-powered roommate matching platform designed to make co-living safer, smarter, and more accessible. His story defies the typical tech founder narrative — he arrived in North America with only a sixth-grade education, limited English, and a history of housing insecurity. Cal rebuilt his life from the ground up, bootstrapping the development of iROOMit. The platform integrates identity verification, scam detection, background checks, lease agreements, and rent payments into a single trusted solution — all critical components when you’re looking for a safe and secure place to live. With over 5,000 new users joining each month, Cal’s mission is rooted in safety, intuition, and connection. He uses technology to empower people seeking housing stability — the kind he once lacked. Your journey to founding iROOMit is anything but typical. What’s the story behind the challenges and life experiences that led you to create this platform?

Kal Merhi: Yes, of course. Because of my upbringing, the idea for iROOMit — the concept of roommate living and co-living — was always in the back of my mind. I’ve always believed that everyone deserves a place to call home. It doesn’t matter if it’s 200 or 300 square feet — if you have a place to sleep and feel safe, that’s home. I lived through civil war and displacement in Lebanon, so I know what it means to be a refugee, even within your own country. That experience gave me a deep appreciation for having stable housing. From early on, I wanted to create something that could offer that kind of support to others — something meaningful, something global. I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I’ve only worked for someone else for about a year or two. The rest of the time, I’ve launched businesses, built them, sold them, and moved on.

The idea for iROOMit came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, I worked on a platform for people to buy and rent homes without needing a real estate agent. But midway through that project, I pivoted. I realized the real need, especially with housing costs rising globally, was in affordable co-living. That’s when I launched iROOMit: a platform focused on helping people find roommates and shared rentals, using AI and innovative technology to match users based on lifestyle compatibility and safety.

We finalized the technology in 2022 and spent that year testing it in the market. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive — even more than we expected. So, we officially launched in 2023. The growth from 2022 to 2023 was exponential, and 2024 saw even more momentum. In 2025, what we’re experiencing has exceeded all our early expectations. We’ve built something the market didn’t offer but desperately needed — a safe, secure, and intuitive platform for finding housing. Yes, people need homes and want to save money, but trust is everything in today’s digital world. Scams, fraud, and misinformation are everywhere — and we set out to change that.

So, we created that safe zone for our community. When people come in looking to rent or they have a place they want to rent out to someone else, it helps them save money, create space, and offer someone else a safe and easy experience. We built that environment intentionally, and the results have been phenomenal.

Jacobsen: Now, when you turned your personal experience with housing instability into a tech platform focused on safety and smart co-living, what was some of the early feedback like? How did input during the beta phases help shape the platform to better meet the needs of people in those situations?

Merhi: Yes, that’s a good question. Initially, when we launched, we listened very carefully to users. I don’t think of them as just users — I call them community members. Even if I’ve never met them, I care deeply about them. So, we made it easy for people to contact us via email or direct message. They gave us feedback on what needed improvement and what they found challenging. The number one issue — and I keep repeating this — is scams. People would connect with others and later discover the listings were fake or unverified. So, together with my business partner David, our CTO, we built an AI system designed to detect and remove scams and unverified listings. We wanted people to feel safe and secure when connecting with others. We focused heavily on that from the very start because we couldn’t scale without safety. If users lose trust in our platform, the whole model collapses. That’s something we noticed with other platforms — they have many scam complaints. You can read the reviews, send emails, and speak with people who’ve had bad experiences. We didn’t want to make that mistake. So, we tackled the problem right at the beginning — not after 100,000 or 200,000 listings. We grew the platform with safety built into its core. As we expand, we’re constantly evolving and improving. The feedback we get is excellent. On the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, our app is rated 4.6. I think that’s solid. Sure, there’s some criticism, but the positive outweighs the negative. Overall, the impact of our technology has been phenomenal.

Jacobsen: Now you’re at 5,000 new users every month. How has that growth trajectory developed over time? Looking back six months or a year, what were your monthly active user additions? And based on that trend, what does the projection look like for the year ahead?

Merhi: Sure, yes. I’ll start with 2022 — our trial year, so I won’t count that. I’ll begin with when people started paying for monthly, weekly, 60-day, and 90-day subscriptions. In 2023, we were getting around 1,200 to 1,300 new users monthly. In 2024, we doubled that.

As I speak with you, we’re hitting 6,000 to 7,000 new users per month. That’s a growth rate of approximately 200% to 300% year-over-year. In 2025, we’re experiencing around a 20% increase month-over-month compared to last year. The growth is exponential, and there is demand. We’re expanding our reach across North America and into the UK. For example, we’re now entering smaller towns and cities, not just focusing on major metropolitan areas. There’s a significant need there, too. From 2023 to 2024, our growth was about 200%, and in 2025, we anticipate hitting 300%. 

By the end of 2026 or early 2027, we’ll be reaching 20,000 new users per month. I’ve developed a three-year expansion plan covering 2025, 2026, and 2027. By the end of 2027, we will be fully launched in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We’re launching in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Dubai in the UAE this spring. By the end of summer or early fall, we expect to enter Western Europe. I aim to reach 100,000 monthly users by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

Jacobsen: Congratulations on those numbers and projections. Now, where is there room for improvement? In a realistic sense — not just theoretical ideals — what next steps or provisions would make the application more robust? And what does this rapid growth say about the rental and housing market for people today?

Merhi: Yes. So, looking at the current housing situation, it’s becoming increasingly complex — not for everyone, but for a high percentage of individuals — to rent on their own. It’s simply out of reach financially. We’ve seen this in our 24/7 data monitoring and internal analysis. If someone wants to live in an urban area, it’s tough. Moving to rural or suburban areas might mean lower rent, but then comes the commuting issue, especially in places where transit options like buses or trains are limited or nonexistent. Renting solo has become extremely difficult for the next generation. For many, the only real option to move out of their parents’ homes — out of basements or shared family spaces — is to choose co-living or roommate arrangements. The last time I checked, about a month ago, the global market cap for roommate living was around $250 billion. By 2027 or 2028, projections suggest it will reach $300 billion. The main reasons are high living costs, unaffordable rents, and stagnant wages. Over the next 10 to 15 years, co-living and roommate-style housing will become the new norm — the new lifestyle. There’s no way around it. This is not just in Canada or the U.S. I’ve spoken to people worldwide; the answer is the same. There’s a significant shortage of affordable housing. So, the market is moving in our direction — the wind is at our back. For individuals looking for a place through our platform, we’ve made the process so easy that we’ve tested and confirmed you can rent a place, whether inside or outside your city, within 15 to 20 minutes, and do so securely.

Because we have all the necessary security elements in place, your money is safe, and your deposit is secure as well. Improvements come from listening to individuals, and, just as importantly, individuals following our guidelines. For example, if someone wants to list a room, we ask them to upload a clear, high-quality photo. This makes people feel more comfortable, and they are more likely to trust listings that appear verified. We offer verification through a partnership with Stripe. There is a small verification fee, but it gives users a trust advantage within the app. We also offer flexible pricing tiers for listings, so people can choose options that fit their budget and life situation. The ongoing improvement of our platform is a hand-in-hand process: listening to our community, tracking advancements in technology, and implementing those developments to make the experience easier and more secure for everyone.

Jacobsen: For those who have experienced housing instability — as you have — this is a vital human aspect of the conversation. What is the feeling, emotionally, when you do not have that stable grounding in life that comes from having a place you can truly call home?

Merhi: Yes… No, no, no — it isn’t enjoyable. It’s as if you’re completely exposed. There’s no protection, no foundation. When you do not have a home, it creates a deep sense of homelessness-not just physically, but emotionally, too. When someone says, “I don’t have a home,” it is a harsh truth. It cuts into daily life. No matter what job you do — whether in construction, a restaurant, anything — at the end of the day, people want to go home and relax, even just for a few hours. But it’s not a good feeling when you don’t have that. Not at all. How can I describe it? It’s like a tiny leaf caught in a storm — the wind takes you wherever it wants. You’re not grounded. You don’t have a place to say, “I belong here.” Yes, it’s sad. But that’s the reality, and I’m just saying it. That’s how it feels.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Kal.

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