February 8, 2005
Team Marketing First Network Card for Gamers Wins $100K in Texas Moot Corp Contest

AUSTIN, Texas—Bigfoot Networks Inc., which plans to be the first company to market a network card designed specifically for online gamers, beat out three other teams of MBA students to win the Texas round of MOOT CORP®, the new venture competition hosted annually at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business.

As winners of the Texas round, Bigfoot Networks qualifies to receive $100,000 in investment funding, a year’s office space in the Austin Technology Incubator and advancement to the Global MOOT CORP® finals in Austin this May. The $100,000 investment is an early stage bridge loan until the team can raise its first major round of venture financing.

Bigfoot Networks’ network card, GoNIC, is designed to make online computer gaming less frustrating by reducing lag, increasing frames-per-second and helping to prevent online cheating. The company’s CEO, Harlan Beverly, invented the card. Beverly previously worked as a hardware architect for Intel Corp.’s Networking Group.

Bigfoot Networks beat out three other finalists in the 2005 competition:

• Aspen Granite, which aims to become the country’s largest supplier of granite countertops by lowering prices through a direct distribution model.
• DragonFly Diagnostics, which is marketing patented technology to improve tissue tests used during chemotherapy.
• Izuma Networks, a software delivery platform that reduces the cost of maintaining PCs by delivering all client software on demand across networks.

"The judges had a tough decision between DragonFly and Bigfoot," said Dr. Gary Cadenhead, director of MOOT CORP®. DragonFly’s technology, which was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, may save the lives of many women with breast cancer. The development, however, will require millions of dollars and regulatory approval may take several years.

"Bigfoot’s product will be a must-have for avid gamers," said Cadenhead. "The company requires only a small investment and should be profitable early in the second year. It could be an enormously lucrative investment for the MOOT CORP Pontoon Fund."

MOOT CORP®, the original student business plan competition founded at The University of Texas as Austin in 1984, offers the most lucrative prize of all of the university-based contests. To qualify for the $100,000 investment, the winning team must be committed to starting its venture.

MOOT CORP® simulates the process of raising venture capital. The judging panel of business leaders and venture capitalists functions as an investment group seeking to reach consensus on the venture they would most likely fund.

The students on the Bigfoot Networks team—CEO Beverly, Chief Financial Office Mike Cubbage and Vice President of Marketing Bob Grim—are all enrolled in the McCombs School's part-time MBA program, the Texas Evening MBA. They are the first part-time students to win MOOT CORP®.

The members of the Bigfoot Networks team can be reached through Dr. Gary Cadenhead, director of MOOT CORP® (512-471-5289), or Ann Whitt, associate director (512-232-6597, 512-699-7444-mobile). For more on the contest visit www.mootcorp.org.

 

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