Bigfoot Networks

About Bigfoot Networks

Bigfoot Networks, Inc. was a hardware and software company established in 2006 by founder Harlan Beverly. Beverly, a serial entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in Business, leveraged his expertise to address a specific niche within the consumer technology market. He identified that network performance was a significant bottleneck for competitive online gamers, a market segment often underserved by standard networking hardware.

The company's core business centered on developing and selling high-performance network interface cards (NICs) designed to optimize the online gaming experience. Operating in the PC gaming hardware market, Bigfoot Networks targeted enthusiast gamers willing to invest in specialized components to gain a competitive edge. The business model was based on the sale of this physical hardware through retail channels. The firm's flagship products were the 'Killer' series of NICs, such as the Killer NIC M1, K1, and the Killer 2100. These were not merely network cards but essentially small computers on a PCI card, featuring their own dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) and RAM. This design allowed the card to bypass the standard Windows networking stack and handle game data packets with priority, a feature Bigfoot termed 'Game Networking DNA'. The primary benefit for users was a reduction in network latency (ping) and the elimination of in-game stuttering or lag caused by the computer's CPU handling network traffic alongside game processing.

Bigfoot Networks secured significant venture capital, raising approximately $21.8 million across several funding rounds from investors like Austin Technology Incubator, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Palomar Ventures. The company's journey culminated in its acquisition by Qualcomm's subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, in September 2011. The acquisition integrated Bigfoot's team and its intelligent networking technology into Qualcomm's portfolio to enhance their own networking solutions.