By Andrew Ramspacher, fpa5up@virginia.edu
An 8 a.m. wake-up call is followed by a two-hour drive and an exhaustive search through upward of 10 thrift stores across Northern Virginia.
It’s all in a Sunday’s work for one McIntire student entrepreneur.
Rajan Chidambaram’s weekends rarely reflect those of a typical college student, and that’s OK. Chidambaram prefers this life.
“I need it to be part of me,” he said, “because I have so much fun doing it.”
Chidambaram is a few months shy of receiving his bachelor’s degree from the McIntire School, but his success story begins before he arrived on Grounds. He’s been a hustler since his junior year of high school when, after watching a Gary Vaynerchuk YouTube video, he was inspired to sell items from his own home—clothing, electronics, or random trinkets that could carry value in the online marketplace.
By his senior year, the Herndon native found his niche—shoes—and, four years later, he’s up to more than 7,500 sales through his eBay store, “TheChida.” He’s invested about $150,000 in profits into other ventures along the way, including a townhome in Charlottesville—where he’s the landlord—and, most recently, property in the Shenandoah Valley that he’s working to develop into luxury cabins for Airbnb rentals.
The lifeblood of Chidambaram’s business, though, fills the 10-by-19-foot office unit he rents in Charlottesville’s McIntire Plaza. Floor-to-ceiling shelves are packed with pre-owned shoes, and Goodwill bags with the next supply are spread across the ground.
All products of his weekend treks.
Since the start of his second year at UVA, Chidambaram has mostly kept to the same Sunday routine of rising early to tour a variety of bargain, secondhand shops near his hometown. He’d typically return to Charlottesville that evening with a car full of footwear and food.
“I love my mom, God bless her soul,” Chidambaram said. “She’d always cook me meals and put them in coolers for me to take back. That was every single Sunday.”
photographs a pair of Under Armour basketball shoes before he posts them for sale on eBay. Chidambaram has made more than 7,500 sales through the online marketplace since his junior year of high school. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Properly fueled, Chidambaram gets to work on reselling the shoes. He cleans them, photographs them, prices them accordingly, and takes detail in marketing them.
“The key to a good sale,” he said, “is a good price, but also having really crisp pictures and good keywords. You get 80 characters in an eBay title, and I try to use every single one. I’ve learned to throw in as many keywords as I can—like ‘athletic running shoes’—because it increases the chances of a sale.”
From Air Jordan basketball shoes to Puma golf spikes to Cole Haan loafers, TheChida offers a wide range of selections. Chidambaram said his best find came from a thrift store in Manassas, where he landed three pairs of rare Kobe Bryant-line Nikes—Kobe 6 Protros—for $10 each, which he then flipped for $250 a pop.
Not every trip north involves a wild adventure, as he’s developed relationships with a few bulk suppliers who can sell to Chidambaram directly.
“My market is mostly everyday wear,” he said. “It’s shoes that I can buy for $5 in bulk and then sell for $25. I think that’s the easiest market to scale because that market will always be there.”
While selling shoes remains Chidambaram’s baby, he’s passionate about the construction of his next project.
Ground broke last week on the 2.5 acres in Front Royal that he and his business partner and high school friend, Renzo Sanio, a Virginia Tech student, purchased for $37,000.
The developing cabin community is called Royal Oak Retreat and is being modeled after Live Oak Lake, a similar space in Waco, Texas, that comes with a story Chidambaram has studied religiously.
“[Live Oak Lake Founder Isaac French] bought land and built seven cabins for $2.3 million,” Chidambaram said. “And in 18 months, he was able to sell those cabins for $7 million. We’re running his playbook to a T.”
This includes documenting the build of their project to a large social media following. Chidambaram’s updates are shared mostly through his Instagram account, which has nearly 42,000 followers.
Amro Hwary, a 2021 UVA alumnus and Royal Oak Retreat’s contractor, said he first discovered Chidambaram on TikTok.
“It was pretty cool to see Rajan go out and be able to do all of that on his own and actually grow it to a pretty successful business,” Hwary said, “especially being able to do that while in college. And it seems like he’s managing his finances well and investing it in the right places. So, it’s pretty awesome to see.”
The first pinned post to Chidambaram’s Instagram profile reflects the message he wants to send about his rise as an entrepreneur. He views himself as an average person who put all he had into something—and it’s worked out.
“You don’t need to be spectacular to do spectacular things,” Chidambaram said. “At UVA, I see kids who are so much smarter than me and if they just went for it, they could do so much better than anything I could do.”
This story was originally published on UVA Today Feb. 25, 2025.
