The HemaForm Product Kit from Austin-based Spot On Sciences aims to improve biological sample collection and analysis. Credit: courtesy of www.spotonsciences.com

SXSW has announced the finalists for its fifth annual SXSW Accelerator, a competition of forward-thinking web-based products. (We like to think of it as Tomorrowland meets the Hunger Games.)

Broken down into an Interactive portion (March 11-12) and a Music one (March 13), the Accelerator competition features two minutes-long product demonstrations in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. OK, so not quite a death match scenario, but stressful stuff nonetheless. Still, the finalists already distinguished themselves out of 500 applicants to this year’s Accelerator, so, y’know, everybody’s a winner here, right?

Two Austin-based companies were tapped as Interactive Accelerator finalists: Clay.io, a platform for HTML5 games, and Spot On Sciences, which develops “innovative medical devices that revolutionize collection and storage of biological fluids for diagnostic testing and medical research.”

For a complete list of 2013 Accelerator finalists, visit the SXSW website.

This article appears in January 25 • 2013.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...