Hagan Kappler

Co-Founder & CEO Daisy

Last Reviewed: September 24, 2026

Executive Summary

Hagan Kappler is co-founder and CEO of Daisy, a Costa Mesa, California company that installs and services home and small-business technology: audio and video, smart lighting, automated shades, security, networking and control systems. The idea came from her own frustration at not being able to find a dependable “tech guy” when every other part of her household had a reliable service provider, and from the observation that no national brand existed in the category. Daisy has grown by two routes at once, acquiring established local custom integration businesses and signing franchisees, and says it had 46 locations across the country by mid-2026, backed by $36 million in venture funding. Before Daisy she worked at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Company, Starbucks and Trane, and in home-services brands including Terminix, ServiceMaster and Merry Maids.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Daisy with industry veteran Dion Persson; the company made its first acquisition in 2024.
• Raised an $11M Series A in June 2024, a $7M Series B in September 2024 and a $15M Series C in March 2025, the last led by Fifth Down Capital.
• Grew Daisy to 46 locations and about 300 employees by July 2026, by her account to the Orange County Business Journal.
• Named one of Goldman Sachs’ Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2025, and to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500.
• Received an Orange County Business Journal Women in Business Award in October 2025.

Professional Journey

Kappler grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and later earned an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She began her career at Goldman Sachs and went on to work at McKinsey & Company, Starbucks and Trane, and with Club Car, Terminix, ServiceMaster and Merry Maids. The last group matters to what came next: they are national service brands built on recurring visits to the home, the model she would later apply to home technology.

Daisy grew out of a personal problem. Working largely from home, with four children and a house full of connected devices, she found she could hire a cleaner, a landscaper and a pest-control technician, but not a reliable technician for the speakers, televisions, cameras and thermostats. She co-founded Daisy with Dion Persson, an industry veteran, to build that national brand; the company’s leadership page lists them both as Co-Founder & CEO.

The company’s strategy has been to consolidate a fragmented trade. It acquires local custom integration businesses and converts them into company-owned Daisy branches, and it sells franchises both to existing integrators and to new operators. It made its first acquisition in 2024 and raised money quickly: an $11 million Series A in June 2024, a $7 million Series B that September and a $15 million Series C in March 2025 from Fifth Down Capital. By then Daisy had completed ten acquisitions and opened seven franchise locations, with leading positions in California and Florida. By October 2025 the count stood at 17 acquired and 20 franchised locations, and in July 2026 Kappler put the total at 46, with about 300 employees, 30 of them at the Costa Mesa headquarters. Alongside installation, Daisy sells Daisy Care, a quarterly maintenance service, which gives it the recurring relationship that distinguishes home-services brands from one-off installers.

In October 2025 Goldman Sachs named her one of its Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2025 at its Builders + Innovators Summit, a recognition she noted was personal given that she had started her career there. She was also named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 list. She lives in Newport Beach.

Education

Williams College

University of Virginia Darden School of Business

MBA