Episode #21 - Building Better Roof Curbs: Kinetics & CurbTech Collaboration

In this episode, we focus on the synergy between Kinetics Noise Control and CurbTech. We explore Kinetics’ history in the roof curb market, the recent Catalyst acquisition of CurbTech, and how these two businesses are partnering to deliver the industry’s best curb solutions, while driving growth and innovation for their customers.

We are joined by Joe VanHoorn from Kinetics and Trent Globetti from CurbTech.

 

 

 

 

Adam Hritzak, Brand Champion, Catalyst Acoustics Group

Hello and welcome to Catalyst Conversations. My name is Adam Hritzak, and I am a Brand Champion with Catalyst Acoustics Group and will be the moderator for today's discussion. In this episode, we are focusing on the synergy between Kinetics noise control and CurbTech. We'll explore Kinetics’ history in the roof curb market, the recent catalyst acquisition of CurbTech, and how these two businesses are partnering to deliver the industry's best curb solutions while driving growth and innovation for their customers. Joining me today are Joe VanHoorn from Kinetics and Trent Globetti from CurbTech.

Okay, so thanks, Joe and Trent, for joining us today. Excited to have you guys on. I think it would be helpful for the audience if we can just go through quick introductions for you both.

So, Joe, I'm going to start with you if you want to just share a little bit about your title, role, and background in this space.

Joe VanHoorn, National Sales Manager – HVAC Division, Kinetics Noise Control

Sure. I'm the newly appointed national sales manager for the HVAC division here at Kinetics. Before this, I worked for a curb company for close to 20 years before joining Kinetics. And actually, when I started out there, we were buying isolation rails from Kinetics. So, I was a Kinetics customer, and we used their rails to put on isolation curbs. I'm putting a lot of focus on selling curbs through Kinetics with the help of Curb Tech.

Adam

Thanks, and Trent, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background, story of CurbTech, and how you got into this business.

Trent Globetti, President, Curb Technologies

Well, I came to Auburn University in 1999, and it's actually the year that Curb Technologies was founded by my partner, Russ Pitcock. In 2002, I was hired by CurbTech to write a computer program to help customers quote was then called the Curb Pak for York International on the sales engineers’ computers, so they could do it themselves and just fax us. Yes, fax back then, an order without having to contact us.

By the time that computer program was finished, York came out with a product called the Solution Unit, which is still around to this day. The problem with the Solution Unit is funny because of the name of the unit was that the dimensions that were shot out of the factory were not correct. And York international will not warranty third-party curbs because they were not bought through the company, and with the wrong dimensions. Obviously, that's a big warranty issue. So, the solution name at the time was kind of hilarious. So, the computer program was never used, and I started to just help out a small business every way I could. So, I got into quoting and et cetera.

When I graduated in 04, I took over running the business. I've been rocking and rolling ever since. And we were purchased by Catalyst in April of this year, 2025. And here we sit.

Adam

All right. Thanks. Appreciate that. It's a great story to tell, obviously, and there's a lot that we can go through today. So, kind of thinking about these, the history of you both, and some early-day items. Joe, question pointing to your direction, and Trent, certainly feel free to chime in. But can you talk a bit about some of those earlier days and how isolation became a key component in the current market?

Joe

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it was, this was back in 2003, and I was running around hitting up all the local reps for curb business. And, you know, one of the things everybody asked for was isolation curbs, and I didn't know what it was. So, I think we even had, might've been Google back then. It might've been Yahoo. I don't know. But anyway, I got in touch with Kinetics, and we started buying their isolation rails and bringing them in, putting them on our curbs, and shipping them out as a turnkey product.

Adam,

Trent, would love to hear your breakdown, I guess, of how this relationship with Catalyst came to be, and maybe fill us in on what your thoughts were and how that all developed.

Trent

When isolation first came into the purview of CurbTech, via engineers spec’ing vibration isolation, we went to Kinetics, and we're a long-time partner with Kinetics for our isolation rails, that we were an OEM customer of Kinetics. And so, for many years, that's who we quote unquote, represented as our isolation line, pretty much the whole history of CurbTech.

We have been a Kinetics customer, and so they're very well aware of us. So, when it came time for us to put our business up on the market, obviously, they were already selling isolation rails, but they would like to be a stronger player in the roof curb industry. So, acquiring us, you know, fit in with this strategic plan to kind of capture more of the full market of that side of things than they currently were. We, you know, we're the right size with the right reach of customers to fit that profile for a business that they were looking to purchase.

Adam

Great. And Joe, you mentioned obviously the excitement that you had hearing about this potential acquisition. I'd like to hear you expand on that a little bit. What were some of your reactions, and what did you think this may do, the doors that could open up, and the potential for your market?

Joe

Yeah, one day we had a team meeting, and I’m told we bought a curb company, and you should go down there and meet with Trent and talk strategy and stuff. I went down there. It was more like we bought a zoo, and, just kidding…

And Trent and I hit it off early on, did my presentation, and next thing you know, he and I are sitting there swapping curb designs on pieces of paper, and generally enjoyed each other's company, and we're both kind of cut from the same cloth as far as that goes. So, it's been a good relationship.

Adam

And Trent, from your side, you've been working pretty close with Joe throughout this time. Curious to hear some of your first impressions and what it's been like working with Joe and the Kinetic team so far.

Trent

When I first met Joe, I didn't know his background at all, but I was very relieved that there was someone with as much, if not more, curb experience than what I had. There was a good understanding of the market and what we're trying to do. Because again, Kinetics wasn't, even though they provided roof curbs, technically, they weren't really a part of the you know, the day in day out, roof curb business. So having someone in sales with that background in everything gave me a great deal of confidence that we could really get this working. Because, you know, to that point, I hadn't met anyone there that really understood all the other types of roof curbs and applications that were out there. So, you know, it just, it just really flowed really easily when having someone that's on your team, but also knows, you don't have to train up per se. And so that was, that was a beautiful thing in my mind. So, I was very upbeat after meeting Joe and feeling that we could really do some damage together in the market.

Adam

Great to hear, and I'm sure there's a lot of opportunity out there, and that's part of the next question here. Obviously, this relationship is still in its infancy, but we’ve caught wind of some exciting developments so far. So, I'll point this at you to start, and Trent, please feel free to chime in. But how have things been going since this has kicked off? You know, maybe some reaction from the market, and what it's been like having this be kind of an extension of your team now.

Joe

This acquisition really enabled me to enable our reps to buy your curbs from me, and it'll help you meet your sales goal, you know, and everything that goes along with that can keep your multiplier or maybe get a workup for the better multiplier or something like that. So early on, people were just like, Hey, can you get this for me? Sure. So, we sold.

You know, early on we sold some small curbs and some equipment supports, stuff like that. Then, not too long ago, we had a customer who had a big project, and some stuff got missed. They needed some custom curbs. They needed them in a hurry. And, you know, now we're able to say yes to fast turnarounds. That's what having Trent and his team down there is allowing us to do is respond faster because in my experience, the faster you can respond with accurate information, the more likely you are to win the jobs. So, when I tell these people, we can have them in a couple of weeks, or we can ship them in a couple of weeks, that's huge. And that's another thing about Trent and his team is they don't miss a lot of ship dates. I've been very impressed with the lack of delays that come with working with them.

Adam

That kind of leads me into my next point here too. So, Trent, you've talked about the quoting process, and some things have been refined in your time. How did you do it? What's the key to being able to keep the speed and efficiency in your processes?

Trent

There was a big gap in the market on actually taking care of customers and hitting ship dates, especially on, you know, custom items. And so, we built our business off of customization and have grown that way and taken a fair amount of market share from some of the bigger competition by just being responsive upfront. But then also our engineering team turns around some medals.

I would like to say better than anyone in the industry. And so, you know, if you get a quote to the customer quickly and drawings quickly, you've really beat a lot of the competition right out of the gate. Of course, sometimes that backfires because you give everybody what they need to shop you around. But more often than not, the, you know, the customers that you want and want to keep respect that and aren't going to really argue over pennies, as long as you're treating them correctly. Because the last thing, a lot of the guys and women that sell HVAC units, the last thing they really want to worry about is a roof curb. You know, it's the last thing people think about, but the first thing that can cause all the problems on a job site. And so, it's been our mission through time to make that not their problem. And so that's just how we've gone about our business model and still continue that to this day. And that's our goal is to use that same flexibility to support all the Kinetics reps and Kinetics, you know, our business model. And so far, we're off to a good start, and we'll continue to refine it and hopefully continue to increase sales that way.

Adam

One of the things on this podcast we like to do is talk about unique situations and projects, things that may stand out, outliers, things like that, that help resonate with the market from all the different requests that may come in. I'll put you guys on the spot here. I'm curious to know one or two projects that you've had directly in this industry that you think are some of the strangest or more unique requests you've ever had from a customer.

Trent

Well, there's, there's not that much in the industry that gets too much more unique than the actual project that Joe was speaking on earlier, that huge plenum curbs that were seismic or wind and seismic with double walls and caps and isolation. That kind of project doesn't happen every single day, but it is out there. And, you know, that is just a good application and definitely a good example of doing something that's highly custom in a short timeframe and quick turnaround, that's our strong suit, is to be able to do that for customers.

There's a lot of boring things out there. That one order in itself is a good example of just one of the more; there's not much more that you could do to a roof curb than what that order entailed.

Joe

Yeah. And let me add to that, because this was exciting, because originally from Kinetics, they told the customer no. After all, he came to us after the fact, we had an order, and then he came and he said, Hey, it needs to have this. We told him, No.

I called Trent, and I was like, Hey, can you do this? And Trent's like, yeah, okay. So, we were able to say yes. And that's, that was how we got our foot in the door. And then they came and they said, well, just realized we need to do this. Trent, yep. You know, and it, and the price tag just keeps going up. Well, at that point, we're a lock, but we're going to, this sets us up to make our optimum dollars on the sale of this. So, when you can bring something like that in, it takes the shop ability out of it because number one, my customer needs to be out dealing with other stuff, not dealing with curbs. He needs to be able to tell us, right or wrong, if he finds out all these details at the last minute, it's a big relief for them, something, a stress point that we can take off of their plate, and we just take care of it.

And again, thanks to Trent’s guys, they were on the phone and email and directly with the customer on Monday because Monday morning the emails were coming in. He's like, Hey, it's shipping today, right? And Trance guys were like, yep, it's gone. We got three trucks coming in, and to be able to put those two together and let Trent’s people take care of my customer, it was invaluable.

Adam

That's great. That's awesome to hear. To tie this up here, just open it up to both of you. Anything else you guys would like to cover about your experiences, this relationship, anything along those lines? Any unique stories to tell?

Joe

It's a new dance partner. I enjoy being able to speak frankly with Trent.

Trent

My feelings were stomped out many years ago in this industry. It's a very taxing industry, especially having to manufacture a product, and having someone like Joe that actually understands that side of things has made it very, very simple.

Joe

And that's one thing that Trent and I share is our passion to win. Say yes, win, get the job, make the money, make top dollar whenever possible.

Adam

Makes sense. All right, great. Well, thank you both for your time today. It's great to hear more about this relationship and your backgrounds. Certainly, I think it's really exciting for what your position can do in the market going forward. And wish you all the best of luck from there.

Joe

Thanks, Adam, for having us.

Trent

Thank you.

Adam

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Catalyst Conversations. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes as we continue exploring solutions, trends, and the future of acoustics, noise, seismic, and vibration control.

Until next time, thanks for listening.