Sometimes imagination is all it takes to turn disaster into opportunity. Just ask Doug Bard ’94, who launched a new career in the wake of an all-too-familiar desktop mishap.

On April Fool’s Day 2004, Bard was busily making real estate deals at his home office, when he reached for a cup of coffee. He missed the mark and knocked hot java all over his work. The result was a blown computer, ruined notes, and a dead phone — a few thousand dollars’ worth of trouble from a momentary distraction.

Catastrophe morphed into opportunity when Bard’s father walked in on the mess. A retired aerospace engineer and part-time inventor, Robert Bard set to designing a spill-proof desk caddy for any sort of beverage container. A few months of fiddling yielded the prototype: a sturdy base with a telescoping platform and weighted arms that firmly grip a cup, mug, glass, can, or bottle.

STOP-A-SPILL operates on a simple premise: A wide base is more stable than a narrow one. Misjudge your reach, and the supported beverage teeters but doesn’t tip over. Conversely, the counter-balanced arms easily release the container when you’re ready to sip. The Bards’ product (U.S. Patent #7494026) is also a ready canvas for cus- tomization, via a corporate logo, symbol of a favorite sports team, or colored ribbon to show support for a non- profit cause.

But a clever product is no guarantee of business success. Doug Bard is careful to embrace a lesson he learned from Bentley marketing instructor Perry Lowe: “You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you’re not marketing it to the right people, it doesn’t matter.”

That mantra set Bard on a search for STOP-A-SPILL’s sweet spot. Consultation with potential distributors led the alumnus to fasten on partnerships geared toward women. Members of the target market make the bulk of household purchasing decisions.

“STOP-A-SPILL fills a need for them, keeping computers, phones and other work tools safe,” he explains. “It’s a natural fit.”

Bard has packed a lot of experience into his career path, including sales and marketing positions at DoubleClick and CBS SportsLine. But this latest venture has a lock on the entrepreneurial zeal fostered by a certain professor.

“I was really inspired by Perry Lowe,” says Bard, who continues to sell real estate and serves as sales manager for Logo Design Guru. “Taking his class made me want to invent, build and market something. This is my chance.”