GMH Bonus: The Roami Exit — Founders Reflect on Selling the Company

Mar 10, 2026

Iskander Karimov, former Roami CFO turned hospitality consultant, and Andreas King-Geovanis, operations leader who built Roami’s virtual concierge, reflect on selling their company to CozySuites. They talk about rapid scaling and onboarding hundreds of units. They discuss opportunistic growth, innovation during COVID, company culture, and what comes next after the sale.

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INSIGHT

Sale To CozySuites Preserves Brand And People

CozySuites acquired Roami and kept the Roami brand, enabling national scale expansion.
Andreas said CozySuites made the highest offer of five bidders and preserving the brand and employees was a decisive outcome.

ANECDOTE

The 400 Unit Sprint With Plunging Toilets

Iskander recalls adding ~400 units in 2024 that involved pitching owners, underwriting, and fast onboarding.
He and Andreas were plunging toilets in Miami Beach while Brandy worked in New Orleans during the intense onboarding crunch.

INSIGHT

Opportunistic Growth Beats Constant Expansion

Roami grew opportunistically, pausing growth when expensive and scaling quickly when market displacement made expansion cheap.
Andreas described 80–90 hour weeks and hands-on work to deliver revenue quickly after takeovers.

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In this special GMH Bonus episode, Brandy Canaley sits down with Roami co-founders Andreas King-Geovanis and Iskander Karimov following the official sale of the Roami brand to CozySuites.

After nearly a decade building one of the largest apart-hotel operators in South Florida and New Orleans, the founders reflect on the journey from startup to exit. The conversation explores how Roami scaled quickly, navigated major industry shifts like COVID, and grew the portfolio through opportunistic expansion and operational hustle.

Brandy, Andreas, and Iskander also share behind-the-scenes stories from the early days of the company, the culture and core values that shaped the team, and the emotional reality of stepping away from a business they spent years building. They discuss why CozySuites stood out as the right buyer, what it means that the Roami brand and employees will continue on, and where each founder is heading next.

It’s a candid look at the highs, challenges, and lessons from building and selling a hospitality company.

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