Ari Gold has Lloyd, but not all of us can have an assistant that is as handy as the Entourage character. The problem with business today is that sometimes administrative tasks may take as much time as important jobs.

Solvate is a startup company that has just raised $2.3 million to help you find an assistant. Julie Ruvolo, the co-founder and COO of the company considers today to be the company’s real laucnh date even though the company was first noticed back in March. The investors in this round include RRE Ventures and DFJ Gotham Ventures Solvate recently redesigned their website too.

The website works like this: first you tell Solvate what you would like to have accomplished. The company finds who is the most qualified and charges you for every 5 minute increments of work with a rate of about $25 per hour. The company contracted can be contacted by the client through e-mail or phone. Some of the tasks that can be done include PowerPoint presentations, expense report management, sale management, and trip planning.

“There’s this hegemonic Valley mentality that the way to scale is automation,” stated Ruvolo in an interview with VentureBeat. However Solvate does not believe in automation as much as they believe in human interaction and involvement. And I couldn’t agree with them more. I’ve used eLance before and it seems like that there isn’t much human interaction at all.

Since the time that the Apple App Store has launched, over 1 billion applications have been downloaded.  Some of the applications are paid and some are free.  The free applications have found a way to make money thanks to Medialets.  Medialets has the ability to embed advertising banners and links on iPhone applications.

The advertising company that started last June in New York and has just announced their Series A funding of $4 million.  The investment was led by Foundry Group.  Other investors are DFJ Gotham and Bobby Yazdani.  Medialets also has the ability to place advertisements on applications built for the Google Android operating system.

Medialets CEO Eric Litman believes that the mobile advertising industry will top at around $300 million but will hit reach as high as $400 million in the next four years.

[via AllThingsD]