The billions of mobile phones currently in use around the world are obviously an irresistible target for those in the content business. From music to movies and even games, companies are falling over themselves trying to reach people on their RAZRs, Treos, or Nokias.

Research firm iSuppli predicts the global market for premium mobile content like music, games, graphics, and video will be worth $35 billion by 2011, up from $16 billion in 2006. In the United States alone, more than 100 million women own cell phones. They consume a slim majority of content, too—50.2 percent in December 2006, according to M:Metrics.

But with so many men working in technology, it's not surprising that there's a dearth of mobile content aimed at women—which is why Kristin Asleson McDonnell and two friends got together in 2004 to form LimeLife.

The company creates games, wallpapers, text alerts, and mobile applications with women in mind. Their timing seemed to be pretty good—earlier this year LimeLife, based in Menlo Park, California, signed a deal with Time Inc. to develop mobile applications based on several iconic brands. The first was InStyle Mobile, after the fashion magazine of the same name.

In May, LimeLife launched Rachael Ray's "Recipes on the Run" in partnership with the American cooking icon, and in June released People Mobile, which delivers content from the popular celebrity magazine to mobile devices. The startup also created a mobile offering based on Bravo channel's popular show Top Chef.

After spending more than a decade working at consumer-facing digital media companies, including HearMe/Mpath, AT&T's ImagiNation Network, Electronic Arts, and Xfire—and often thinking about ways to find male customers—LimeLife offers Ms. Asleson McDonnell, 44, a nice reprieve.

"Now I feel it requires much less of an effort to figure out what my target customer [wants]," she says. "It can be based much more on gut reaction and personal experience rather than statistics, analysis, and focus groups. I can be much more in touch with my feminine side and not think about what a male gamer wants."

And while it might be easier for her to understand what LimeLife's users want, it doesn't make the job a piece of cake. In fact, it's been challenging to find women with technical expertise in the mobile realm. "If this was purely a web company it wouldn't be so challenging," Ms. Asleson McDonnell says. But she's satisfied with what LimeLife's been able to accomplish so far. "I love our daily dose, wallpapers, and People mobile. My tastes are very much aligned with the partners we've chosen.

Ms. Asleson McDonnell, who grew up in Michigan and Connecticut, now lives in Menlo Park with her husband and three children.

—Ryan Olson