The Inspiration Behind the SpotOn System

Q&A with Sung, VP of Engineering

Watch as Sung explains how SpotOn came to be!

After selling his military startup, our founder Ken Solinsky used his tech expertise to build a smarter canine enclosure using GPS. Ken Solinsky was living just outside Manchester, New Hampshire, after selling a military firm, Insight Technology, that he’d founded with his wife, Grace, to L-3 Communications (now L3Harris) in 2010. But in 2014 when an irrigation contractor he’d hired to work on a sprinkler system mentioned how often he’d accidentally cut the wires in invisible dog fences, Solinsky, a long-time dog owner, was intrigued. He wondered if he could design a completely wireless version that would get rid of homeowners’ frustrations and offer more flexibility.

When the irrigation contractor started talking about how easy it was to tear up the underground wires in invisible fences, Solinsky–whose current dog is a golden retriever named Kai–called an engineer from his defense business, Sung Vivathana, for a reality check. Vivathana agreed that the idea wasn’t nuts. In 2015, Solinsky founded OnPoint, and hired Vivathana as its first employee and director of engineering. It took three years after he had the initial idea to develop the technology behind the SpotOn Virtual Fence. But when Solinsky brought it to market in 2019, he quickly found a market! 

To learn more about how SpotOn is different than traditional wireless and invisible fences, and how we compare to other systems, check out this page.