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How a Bad Roommate Sparked a Dorm-Room Startup RoommateFit, an online matching software modeled after online dating sites, grew out of Justin Mares' bad roommate experience his freshman year.

By Jodi Helmer

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Problem solver:RoommateFit's Justin Mares.
Problem solver:RoommateFit's Justin Mares.
Photo© Randy Harris

Just weeks after moving into the dorms at the University of Pittsburgh, Justin Mares started thinking about transferring. The problem wasn't his professors or his classes. It was his roommate.

"He was unhappy and antisocial, the classic horrible roommate," recalls Mares, 22. "It really showed me how a bad match impacted the experience I had at school."