Bigfoot is ready to make the big leap
by Lilly Rockwell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Performance-boosting hardware maker stepping up from network cards to servers as online gaming industry takes off.

original article: Bigfoot is ready to make the big leap Austin American Statesman June 04, 2007

Austin American Statesman - June 04, 2007 -Harlan Beverly likes playing online games, especially "Ultima Online."

He spent hours with his virtual character and met his real-world wife online. They even named their children after their virtual children in the game.

But like many gamers, Beverly was frustrated by the slight delay in game action that occurs when data are sent from a game company's server to hundreds of computers at once. The problem often is exacerbated by slow Internet connections and overburdened personal computers.

The delay, called lag, can be agonizing for serious gamers when a split second can mean the difference between virtual life and death.

Beverly, a former chip architect at Intel Corp., thought he had figured out a way to reduce lag.

While working at an Austin startup called Britestream Networks, he enrolled in night business classes at the University of Texas. He had an ambitious plan to create a product and company and be able to walk away from his full-time job.

The turning point came in 2004 in a class about creating companies. The professor asked whether anyone had an idea that they felt especially passionate about.

"Not being a shy guy, I run up to the front and proclaim that I know how to make online games stop lagging," Beverly said. "I know how to make a product that is going to be blockbuster and sell billions of dollars' worth of product."

Afterward, "half the class came and saw me," he said, as teams were formed to develop the most promising ideas.

Beverly connected with two fellow students, Bob Grim and Mike Cubbage, who happily ditched their own concepts to work on his.

Later that semester, Bigfoot Networks was born.

Two-and-a-half years later, Bigfoot is gaining speed. It has raised $4 million in venture funding, released its first product, named the "Killer" network card, launched a new product for servers and is expanding internationally.

The company has 30 employees; a year ago, it had three.

Beverly, 31, is "CEO and mad scientist," according to a business card decorated with a goofy image of the half-man, half-animal Sasquatch creature of North American lore.

Grim, 34, is vice president of marketing, and Cubbage, 29, is the chief financial officer.

Bigfoot, named for an obscure gaming term, is a rare breed in Austin's high-tech industry: It isn't a semiconductor company and doesn't manufacture computers or concentrate on software.

The company focuses on producing performance-boosting computer hardware for gamers, a promising market that is starting to attract more investors and interest.

The story is bootstrappers-meet-Generation X.

Having grown up around online games, the three entrepreneurial-minded young men understood their promise and worked overtime to turn their idea into a 7-by-4-inch piece of green hardware embedded with a silver K, for the testosterone-charged Killer name.

Meanwhile, they held down day jobs, juggled family life with the demands of night school and devoted any leftover hours to the startup.

They developed a prototype, and won UT's Moot Corp business competition in 2005.

That honor came with $100,000 in prize money and free space in the Austin Technology Incubator, a group that helps local startups. With another $100,000 raised from friends and family, they were able to quit their jobs to focus on Bigfoot full time.

Bigfoot's first product, the Killer network interface card, was released in September. It sells for $249 — on the low end of hardware to improve game play — at retail stores such as Fry's and online retailers including TigerDirect.com and Dell.

Traditionally, computers use a built-in network card that helps translate data sent over large networks, such as between a game server and a computer. With online games, it's important that data be sent smoothly and continuously.

Bigfoot's product is a processing unit that takes some of the networking load away from the computer, freeing up processing power to concentrate on the game itself.

It also separates the functions of graphics and networking. The result is more responsive, smoother game play with less lag.

Computer game magazines gave Killer a thumbs-up.

PC Gamer called it a "computer within your computer," saying it boosted performance 10 percent.

With a focus on research and development, Bigfoot has moved toward a new product for game servers, which can be confronted with massive workloads in handling the thousands of players who simultaneously play games such as "World of Warcraft."

The servers are the most expensive part of running massively multiplayer online games.

Bigfoot said last month that its new technology will help game servers run more efficiently, increasing the number of players they can handle and boosting performance.

Gamers who already own the Killer card will see an extra boost in performance if they're connected to servers using Bigfoot's new technology.

What makes Bigfoot an attractive investment is the opportunity for growth in online games, said Brian Grigsby, a managing partner with Venio Capital Partners, an Austin venture capital firm.

The worldwide online game market, about $4.5 billion in 2006, is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2012, according to industry researcher DFC Intelligence of San Diego.

Although many traditional venture capital firms shy away from game companies because the industry is considered young and risky, Venio likes to invest in the game and entertainment space.

Venio invested $4 million in Bigfoot in 2005. For unproven entrepreneurs, it was a huge endorsement.

Grigsby said Bigfoot has the potential to transform game technology.

"There are 200 million gamers out there, and 20 million are playing online games," Grigsby said. "Of that market, some percentage will certainly want to add components to give them a competitive advantage."

Even though Bigfoot's product is unique, the company struggles to stand out among the dozens of products designed to enhance game play, such as video and sound cards.

"Our biggest challenge really revolves around getting the word out, letting people know about who we are and what we do," Beverly said.

Bigfoot is in its adolescence, Beverly said, with plans to move out of the Technology Incubator building and into its own offices soon.

The company will focus on reaching out to international customers, who make up about 50 percent of its clientele, and developing more products.

"Our goal is to end lag," Beverly said. "Our first product only reduces it. We have to continue to try and develop a product that will end it."

lrockwell@statesman.com; 445-3819