For women, Ferwerda said, there was really only two choices for women looking to buy skiwear: something that worked well but looked boxy and unfashionable or something fashion-forward that costs thousands of dollars.

She wanted to create something that found the middle ground: something cute and functional that wasn’t as expensive at the offerings of luxury brands.

Around this time, she met her co-founder, Kylie McKinnon, who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics while wearing men’s skiwear. McKinnon was very familiar with the lack of options for women.

“They use a method called 'shrink it and pink it' which is essentially taking the men's products and shrinking them down and dyeing them a color that they think women will want to wear,” Ferwerda said. “That's the product development thesis around a lot of these skiwear brands. So, we just felt that there was a huge gap to create something that was female focused in the ski industry.”

What came out of this recognition was Halfdays, Ferwerda’s skiwear company that derived its name from the idea of taking a half-day ski pass.

“A lot of the ski brands in the industry are very technical and performance-driven and they're super competitive,” Ferwerda. “We just wanted to do something completely opposite and make it more fun and lighthearted and something that really alluded to the lighthearted elements of skiing.”

While Ferwerda is now the CEO of Halfdays and a member of the most recent class of the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, she said the starting days of the company presented challenges she had to quickly adapt to. Since she and McKinnon had zero experience in product design and development, she said they had to bring in a freelancer that could help them bring their ideas to life.

Realizing the importance of networking and the difficulty of fundraising was another learning curve, especially as two young women in business working with investors who are typically male.

“Less than 2% of all venture capital dollars go to women in the US, which is insane,” Ferwerda said. “Even though last year, more than 50% of startups were founded by women. So, there's a huge discrepancy in the amount of dollars going to female founded businesses in venture capital and private equity.”

Ferwerda said, in general, it was difficult to get people to take her seriously as the head of a company. As a 24-year-old without a ton of experience, there were people who questioned why they should follow her leadership and invest in her business.

However, Ferwerda said she has noticed an enormous amount of personal growth in herself since these early days. She said she has developed better communication skills, learned how to have difficult conversations that will ultimately better the company and knows how to see the bigger pictures when it's needed. 

“When I was at Michigan State and in school, you're just focused on the thing in front of you," she said. "I was definitely more focused on like, 'I'm going to get this degree and then I'm going to get a job,' ... But I definitely think a lot more about, ‘How are the things that I'm spending my time on today going to help build a foundation for where I want to be in ten years from now?’”

Ferwerda said she and her team have expanded their goals and hope they can take Halfdays to larger and more widespread success. She wants it to become a global brand. 

But even with the growth of the company’s products and reach, Ferwerda said what gets her most excited is seeing the team of people she works with. She said it’s an “interesting feeling” seeing people not just excited about the brand — but wanting to work for her.

“Especially being young and I've really only had like two and a half years of professional experience,” Ferwerda said. “It's an interesting thing where now you're managing a team of 20 plus people and everyone's so smart and so great and I think that that's something I'm definitely really proud of.”