A new generation of couples may find love at first hate through a new dating app developed by a Dartmouth company.

Created by Samantha and Adam Roderick of Fairhaven, “HateDate” links people through things they mutually dislike. Dartmouth-based The Franchise Group is spearheading the development of the mobile app, led by Chief Visionary Officer Nick Francis alongside developer Josh Harding of Statewide Software and Hans Doherty, who is funding the project.

“The idea of aligning people based on their dislikes is something that has not been commonly or widely executed, especially as it relates to the dating space,” said Francis.

The idea first came to the Rodericks when they were at home watching TV and a dating website commercial came on. Samantha turned to her husband and said, "We wouldn't even be married if we didn't have so many things in common that we hate," Doherty said.

They began developing the app with Harding, but ran out of funds. The project was shelved for six months until Doherty, a friend of Harding's, caught wind of it and offered to fund the project.

"I was intrigued," Doherty said.

HateDate works by matching people based on dislikes through a series of algorithms, Francis said. The most important matching determination is based on location. Users will be able to choose their preference for men, women, or both, and then begin selecting things they dislike to build a profile.

With more than 4,000 dating apps on the market, Doherty said HateDate is the first app of its kind.

"No one's doing what we're doing," he said.

Doherty and the development teams have put lots of research into determining if the project would be viable. According to the research, 45 percent of couples stay together based on things they dislike.

Some people have missed the point of the app, misconstruing it as a conduit for hateful behavior. However, Doherty says that a small level of "policing" will be available to prevent and report hate speech and harassment. Additionally, the project has been extremely well-received with 90 percent positive feedback, he said.

"The other 10 percent just don't get it," Doherty added.

HateDate is one of the programs being presented at the Entrepreneurship for All summit in Fall River Thursday, April 21. Already, HateDate has received feedback like, "I hate this idea and look forward to finding my soulmate on your app."

Much of the preliminary functionality is easily recognizable based on features commonly found through other dating apps. However, “a few curve balls [are] thrown in the mix to help differentiate the HateDate” from other dating apps, Francis said.

Though the project is still in its development phase, HateDate will launch as a "freemium" app to attract attention. The app will be completely free, but bonus features will require purchasing the app for 99 cents, Doherty said.

“Charging a fee for the service from the start would only be viewed as a deterrent and we want to maximize our footprint as fast as possible,” said Francis.

The project development is about 40 percent complete, Francis estimates. He hopes to be able to launch the app by early summer for beta testing.

“We want to understand what features folks are most interested in, then take that information and build upon it to continue to iterate producing a better user experience,” Francis said. “A mobile app functions similar to a website in that it is a living, breathing thing. If you set it and forget it, you will quickly lose traction and become irrelevant.”

HateDate will launch for Apple devices, but there are plans for an Android release in the future.