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Some Side Hustle School stories keep going long after they first air. Today we catch up with Dr. Ronak Mehta, a primary care physician in Madison, Wisconsin, who turned a children's book about the human body into a line of plush toys shaped like human organs.
Ronak started Nerdbugs while she was still in medical school. She had written a children's book — cute, colorful, in the spirit of Dr. Seuss — about the human body, and she wanted to turn its characters into something tangible: a plush toy kids could hold, whether they were in a hospital bed or a classroom. She describes the toys as "obnoxiously adorable," and they're used both as get-well gifts for patients and as teaching tools for kids and adults learning about the body.
She built the business the way she had time for it: 10 to 15 minutes a day, seven days a week, no matter what. Some of that time went to research instead of visible progress, but each session moved her one step closer to the next one.
Since her first appearance on the show, Nerdbugs has grown well past a side project. In 2020, Ronak was a finalist for Amazon's Women-Owned Small Business of the Year, which led to coverage on ABC, NBC, CBS, and in the Wisconsin State Journal, along with a run of podcast features — none of which she expected. What means the most to her, though, are the messages from customers: photos and stories of patients holding a Nerdbugs plushie during treatment or recovery, sent in from all over the world.
Her advice for anyone sitting on a passion project: start small and start now. Ten or fifteen minutes a day is enough, as long as you show up for it.
Check out her plush organs at Nerdbugs.com.
