It was just a few months ago, at January’s CES 2024, that Daisy made its debut as the custom installation industry’s first nationwide franchise opportunity. (SaaviHome, the industry’s other franchise opportunity announced just prior to CEDIA 2023, covers the Mountain West region only at this time.) At launch, Daisy’s goals seemed ambitious; in its initial press release, the company stated it “will have numerous offices in California, Texas, Florida, Connecticut, and North Carolina by Q2,” and “expects to be in at least 16 markets in 2024, with a plan to be nationwide in 2025.”
In February, Daisy announced the addition of industry powerhouse Brilliant AV in Southern California, as well as the acquisition of an integration company serving Fairfield County, Conn., giving Daisy operations on both coasts. March rolled in with the announcement of a new franchise located in Sarasota, Fla., and the acquisition of Gordon van Zuiden’s well-established cyberManor in Los Gatos, Calif., putting the company in a good position to hit its Q2 goal.
Daisy’s speedy success is due to its executive management team, which is steeped in franchise experience and is headed by founder and CEO Hagan Kappler, who previously led home-service franchising stalwarts such as ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, and Threshold Brands. Daisy was created out of her professional experience and her own need for a home technology expert.
“On the personal side, I’m a mom of four kids and I’ve been running home services companies for the last six years,” says Kappler. “I felt more frustrated than I thought I ought to have been with my technology. When I looked at home automation, I thought what better space to drive an impact and be able to use my experience in home services while also meeting that personal need?
“As I started to learn more about the market, I discovered that it’s a $30 billion business, it’s growing really fast, and there is no national brand in the space. I think the consumer experience would improve massively if there was a brand here in the custom-integration market that was like Terminix in the pest-control space.”
The more Kappler met with integrators, the more she heard that, while they were aware that a recurring service is what clients were looking for, implementing such a model was difficult because of the small staffs that were bogged down with the day-to-day business.
“When I started to talk to integrators, I realized that they needed more help and support — the kind of support that you typically see in national brands and other home services companies,” she says. “So, the concept started to pivot from a mission of helping the consumer to also adding ways to help make the integrators’ lives better while proving the profitability in the growth and the overall value of their businesses.”
With the vision in place, Daisy started building its team. “We recruited professionals with home services experience from Terminix and ServiceMaster Brands,” says Kappler. “We hired the head of growth from Crumbl Cookies, who’s heading up marketing for us, and then we hired folks from the custom integration industry. We started to build out ten different areas to provide support for integrators. We were also looking to identify flagship offices that could help establish the best practices and be flagships.”
Attracting Grandstanders
For established businesses such as Brilliant AV and cyberManor, both of which will transition to the Daisy name and branding, being a Daisy branch is different from those starting a business from scratch. For one thing, the original owner remains heavily involved in the operations and client relationships.
“Our first goal is to do no harm,” says Kappler. “We are investing in these businesses for a reason, and we don’t want to do anything that will break them. We just want to add support. If that happens to be on the financial side, then that’s where we’ll dig in, but if they have a really savvy team and a really good office manager, we may put that part on hold and lean in on a recurring-service pilot instead. We have a turnkey system for anyone who wants to take advantage of that, but we’re not looking to cause any frustrations or problems for an owner. We want to make sure that things go smoothly during the integration process.”
What Daisy Wants
With Daisy’s Q2 goals still within reach, it is continuing to investigate flagship offices. So, what exactly is the company looking for?
“We’re looking for really attractive markets where the dynamics are healthy and strong and where there’s going to be growth either because there’s a lot of new home construction or we just see trends that we like,” says Kappler. “Silicon Valley made a lot of sense for us. Orange County, the suburbs of Manhattan, and Florida are great markets as well.
“In terms of the actual business, we’re not necessarily honing in on a specific size — we think we’ve got the support that could help someone grow — but we look for a good group of people who are excited about being a part of Daisy. These are folks who tend to be in networking groups and benefit from being a part of that network. We think that’s important because it shows us that they’ll enjoy and thrive in a franchise environment.
“Finally, we look for someone who has aspirations. When we met CEO Matt Walin at Brilliant AV, he had his vision hanging on the wall, which was to be a national franchise brand in 10 years. I said, ‘How about 10 months?’ He signed the franchise agreement about nine months later. That kind of vision is important to us, especially the idea that they want to get better, because it’s one thing to have all the best playbooks and all the best toolkits, but you still have to hunker down and do the work.”
Those are many of the same qualities Daisy looks for in a new franchisee as well. “I think the new owners are likely going to fall into two categories,” Kappler explains. “First is someone who has some experience and background in technology and integration. That’s why our technicians become a great recruiting ground for us, because we can develop paths to get them to be owners one day. The second group is people who are business-savvy and who have some experience in the home services space. It’s someone willing to roll up their sleeves — they don’t necessarily need to be hanging TVs or running wires, but they are willing to help with dispatch in the morning and working on hiring and setting up some processes to ensure that the teams are successful.”
Starting a new Daisy franchise from scratch will require an initial investment of around $180,000–220,000, while the cost to start a conversion franchise is $25,000. “When you join Daisy, you get the benefit of great coaches and a good team and good advice and the sort of professionals who will provide training and be ahead of what’s going on with manufacturers as you try to stay on top of key trends and technology upgrades,” says Kappler. “But what I generally find to be the greatest benefit in these kind of franchise networks is being able to ask someone who’s been in the industry for a long time how they do what they do. You get to share those learnings and have that nice feeling of knowing you’re not alone.”
Kappler encourages anyone interested in participating in a Daisy franchise to reach out to her or any Daisy employee on LinkedIn. There is also a form you can fill out at daisyco.com for more information.
What’s In a Name
Daisy’s vision is to build a national consumer-beloved brand. It took the name Daisy because the team was looking for something that was approachable and friendly — how they hope consumers’ experience with their home technology can ultimately be. They wanted a name and a brand that people would see on the trucks and smile, or want to learn more about.
