Meet Rajan Chida, part athlete, part builder, fully out-of-the-box. He grew up swinging a tennis racquet at national level, picked up basketball’s competitive edge in high school, and—when varsity didn’t pan out—channeled that drive into entrepreneurship. A Gary Vee thrift-flip clip lit the fuse. Reselling turned into a sneaker business that gave him something he values more than revenue: daily direction. “I woke up every day with a goal again,” he says. That discipline—train, test, repeat—would later become the operating system for a far bigger idea…The Royal Oak Retreat.
See also: Built on friendship: How Emad Yacoub turned hustle into Glowbal hospitality
The pivot: From shoe money to seven cabins
The inflection point arrived in Austin in June 2024. Chida reconnected with Renzo, an old tennis doubles partner who was working in development and pitching “micro-resorts.” Chida had quietly bought his first investment property with sneaker profits, which made Renzo’s eyes widen. By November, they had land under contract in Virginia and a simple proposal: take 60 days to study it—engineers, soil, second opinions—and back out if it didn’t pencil. They didn’t back out. On January 10, 2025, they closed.
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Their blueprint was clear-eyed: draw inspiration from Live Oak Lake, a seven-cabin project in Waco that sold for a reported premium after launch. The lesson wasn’t copy-paste luxury; it was proof that design integrity plus direct-to-guest marketing could produce outsized value. “If we bring that quality and storytelling to Virginia, we can’t miss,” was the thesis.
Mentors, not mystique
Chida and Renzo hit the usual headwinds—construction loans are a hard sell when you’re 22—but they didn’t white-knuckle it alone. A UVA alum agent guided his first property. A Virginia builder with one of the state’s top Airbnbs (and a new construction firm) slid into their DMs after seeing a development video and became a hands-on mentor. “We beat the learning curve by 300%,” Chida says. The lesson is refreshingly un-romantic: find someone who’s done it, borrow their scar tissue, and keep moving.
Building in public (and why it worked)
If you’ve seen a Royal Oak clip, you know the shtick: Rajan talking fast, quick cuts, a driving beat—and a cabin rising behind him. The visuals matter. “People buy into people, not products,” he says, but people also need proof. Standing in front of the beams, the floor, the frame at each stage made the story tangible. Oddly, his most-watched clip wasn’t a glossy reveal; it was a low-fi explanation of the septic plan with a hand-drawn sketch. Make it visual; make it honest; make it move.
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He also tends his community the old-school way. In the early days he DM’d new commenters to say thanks and built a deep bench of real relationships—developers, contractors, students, and fans. He hasn’t tried to monetize the audience; he sees the value as network and momentum. “I’d give up my Instagram before I’d give up my contacts,” he laughs.
Wellness wasn’t an add-on—it became the point
Originally, Royal Oak was “just” a beautifully built nature stay. Then a single tweet about the wellness-real-estate boom (projected multi-trillion growth) nudged a rethink. Chida floated a question to his audience: what if the retreat leaned into health? The response was instant—industry leaders reached out, health creators followed, even NBA star Kyrie Irving hit follow. So Royal Oak pivoted with intention: hot tub, sauna, cold plunge as the early pillars; more to come.
Crucially, Chida doesn’t want to play doctor. He’s actively courting science-first advisors—think Fit Insider-type operators, even academic voices—to shape guest protocols. The aim is credibility you can feel: contrast therapy done right, recovery flows that make sense, and simple daily practices guests can take home.
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His take on men’s mental health
On the headspace side, he’s not into “monk mode.” He credits family support, local friendships, and mentors for keeping him grounded—and he rejects the lone-wolf myth. “If you try to do it all yourself, you might go fast, but you won’t go far,” he says. He sees relationships as performance gear: the right people shorten hard days, sharpen decisions, and prevent avoidable mistakes.
What Royal Oak is really building
Yes, there will be cabins—clean-lined, camera-ready, function-first. But the bigger build is ritual. Mornings that start with steam and journaling. Afternoons punctuated by a cold plunge and a slow walk under trees. Evenings designed for real conversation instead of doom-scrolling. The bookings will be measured in two-night stays; the impact, hopefully, in habits that outlast them.
How the work actually gets done
Chida learned the hard way that “one-man show” kills scale. His sneaker business couldn’t be sold for much more than its inventory because he was the process. Now he and Renzo delegate—with standards. Georgetown students handle AI renders; a pro interior designer steers materials and mood; a trusted contractor owns the build plan; health experts will own the science. Their focus: stay in their lanes—Rajan on story and community, Renzo on construction management—while surrounding those lanes with people who are “10x better.”
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Staying on mission (and saying no)
Success attracts side quests. When the founder of Spartan offered them “save the farm” terms that looked irresistible—big acreage, friendly economics—they walked away. It was the proverbial woman in the red dress. The mission is clear: finish the first Royal Oak, then expand deliberately. A good story is focus, not FOMO.
Why this matters now
Royal Oak is Gen Z entrepreneurship in the wild: transparent, mentored, community-led, and wellness-centric. It speaks to a bigger shift in men’s culture too. Taking care of yourself isn’t a spa day you apologize for—it’s maintenance for the machine you live in, and a far more sustainable flex than burnout. If a 22-year-old can build cold-plunge cabins while asking smarter people for help, the rest of us can book a weekend and start with a breath.
The takeaway
Rajan Chida isn’t just building cabins; he’s building a playbook—learn fast, show your work, choose health, and let great people shorten the path. Royal Oak Retreat is the proof of concept you can sleep in—and maybe, the reset you’ve been promising yourself.
