This one hits deeper than a startup story.
I sat down with Kal Merhi, founder of iRoomit, and what began as a simple “Airbnb-for-roommates” conversation turned into a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and building something that actually serves people.
Kal grew up in Beirut during the civil war—fifteen years of survival, homelessness, and walking miles every morning just to get water. He came to Canada with ten family members and two dollars, learned the language on the fly, bought his first business with a handshake and a promissory note, scaled to 23 stores, lost everything, rebuilt five more businesses, burned out, lost his mother… and then found the idea that finally felt like purpose.
iRoomit wasn’t built to chase hyper-growth or squeeze users for revenue.
It was built to solve a real, global problem:
Rent is unaffordable. Loneliness is rising. Scams are everywhere. And millions of people just need a safe, stable place to live.
In this episode, we break down:
How Kal’s war-zone childhood shaped his belief that every person deserves “100 square feet called home.”
How bootstrapping forced him to design a real business, not a VC hallucination.
The scam problem in housing that nobody talks about—and how iRoomit engineered a zero-scam ecosystem using real-time ID + payment verification.
The rise of co-living, and why the next housing wave isn’t ownership—it’s shared space, affordability, and community.
Why landlords can make more by renting individual rooms than renting a whole house.
How iRoomit is scaling across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Singapore, and the UAE—without investors or a dime of outside funding.
The mindset required to start from nothing, fail repeatedly, and still build something that matters.
If you’re a founder rebuilding from setback…
If you’re trying to build clarity around your next move…
If you want an example of someone who’s been through hell and still chose purpose over profit—
This conversation will reset your bar.
Listen in. Then turn insight into execution.
Connect with Kal
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kal-merhi-a40563161/
