What I’m about to say is, apparently, very uncool these days. But, our tech start-up, Daisy, a leader in the smart home installation industry, sees a huge opportunity to hire, train and retain more women employees for its workforce.
We view this as such a competitive advantage that we are investing millions of dollars over the next five years to achieve gender parity for Daisy’s front-line workforce.
Daisy installs televisions, speakers, security cameras, lighting, motorized shades, and control and integration systems. We also provide an ongoing, quarterly in-home service to help solve technology problems for our clients throughout their lives.
Launched only 14 months ago, Daisy now has 20 locations across the country. It has achieved “eruptive growth” (as one investor said) by acquiring and franchising many of the top existing players in the space and by providing breakthrough services for our branches, including operations, finance, call center, marketing, and supply chain. Our team provides operational support to branches so that our front lines can provide optimal customer technology service.
Smart home installation and services are part of an attractive, $30 billion market, growing at 13%. Our customers include high end custom builders, architects and interior designers, and the top 1% of the population. Women make up at least half of the buying decisions and user base.
Over 20,000 existing dealers installing these clients are run by men. Additionally, 95% of the technicians and salespeople installing and selling these products are men.
The top inhibitor to keeping up with industry growth is finding experienced technicians to support demand. Experienced techs are hard to find.
At Daisy, we believe that bringing women into the field and into our technician workforce will improve our competitive advantage by more than doubling our talent pool. Women make up more than half of the college educated workforce and are killing it in math and coding in school.
As top technology companies have publicly shed their diversity programs and cut staff, I see a great opportunity for Daisy to scoop up top women tech talent for its workforce. Meta’s CEO, for example, said they were “embracing masculinity” and cut 5% of its workforce.
In addition to competitive compensation, we provide free benefits to our technicians and their families. We offer Daisy stock options to all technicians as well, so that they can build generational wealth as Daisy’s valuation grows. We offer maternity leave to moms (and paternity leave to dads). Many of our offices offer four-day work weeks, providing moms with flexible work schedules. We offer training and career development for our technicians, with clear career paths and mobility opportunities. Daisy also offers mobility for our technicians by having attractive nationwide opportunities.
We also look out for our teammates. As a woman who knows all too well how dangerous after hours events can be at a technology conference, I share codes of conduct and openly encourage my teams to help one another at industry events.
We highly value our technicians given their proximity to our clients. More women working in clients’ homes and in Daisy leadership roles ensures that we improve our connection to women users, influencers and decision makers.
While researching and building Daisy, I saw more man caves than I care to count. While entertaining is an important element of what Daisy builds, the design elements, as well as day to day functionality, are equally important to women clients. Having women on my team ensures that Daisy can speak to women clients and women interior designers and meet their needs.
Daisy’s early results indicate that women in tech leadership positions in this industry and in the field lead to success. Daisy is now the leading national brand in the industry with the most solid financial backing of any industry player. We are the fastest-growing player in the industry. Our woman led branch is our top performing branch. Women at Daisy have built out an end-to-end technology solution and a financial system and marketing programs driving incredible performance and improving morale by making life easier for our teams. It is no wonder that we have 100% tech retention at our 13 acquired operations.
At Daisy, we are making investments across the board to not only improve and uplift our branches and our employees, but to uplift the industry. Attracting more women into the industry is one of the many areas where we feel the industry has significant opportunity.
Our goal at Daisy is to have 50% women technicians in its workforce by 2030.
With no trade schools for industry technicians, Daisy started an apprentice program just a few months ago. We now have [four] talented women with expertise in customer experience and technology who have already started and are adding value in our branches.
Only 500 more to go.
Hagan Kappler is the co-founder and CEO of Daisy, a national home technology integration company. Hagan is experienced in home services, consumer brands, as well as in strategy and M&A. She led Threshold Brands, ServiceMaster, and Merry Maids. She launched Blonde Roast at Starbucks and worked for McKinsey as well as Goldman Sachs. She holds a BA from Williams College and an MBA from Darden at UVA.
