Hagan Kappler is building Daisy, a Rollup & Franchisor in Smart Home Services

Do you love your home “IT and AV guy”? We didn’t think so.  

In this episode, Peter Lehrman sits down with Hagan Kappler, co-founder of Daisy, an emerging national player leader in home technology installation, integration, and servicing. Daisy has acquired eight companies in roughly 12 months, and is beginning to integrate franchise opportunities into the buy-and-build M&A playbook.  

The conversation is all about Hagan, her team, her authentic history of operating and transacting in related categories, and Daisy’s unique approach to combining M&A and franchising. 

Hagan details how her team is drawing lessons from other home services markets, how they’re experimenting with new recurring revenue business models, and how they’re tackling other challenges that plague the residential A/V and smart home categories. 

Discussion Points:

• The Daisy origin story and the idea of a national smart home services model
• The market opportunity: A $30 billion industry with no national brand
• Hagan’s transition from home services to smart technology
• Differentiating through service with the recurring "Daisy Care" model
• Building a brand and operational infrastructure: CRM, training, and call centers
• Balancing M&A and franchising strategies for scale
• Strategic geographic expansion and post-acquisition value-add initiatives
• The unfair advantage of an experienced M&A team in home services
• The importance of optionality in financing and operational models
• Franchising as a growth engine: improving owner quality of life and increasing business valuation
• Recurring service offerings as a key differentiator
• Aligning the business for 2025: Scaling recurring services and brand identity

Masters in Small Business M&A (sign up for the podcast here) is produced by its host Peter Lehrman and the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially explore growth capital and exit transactions with top-ranked lower middle market M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league table rankings