I want to tell you about a problem that has haunted me for decades. Not geopolitics. Not climate change. Not even the eternal question of whether we are alone in the universe. This problem is more immediate. More personal. More viscerally infuriating every single time it happens.
Hot dogs come in packs of ten. Buns come in packs of eight.
Every summer. Every backyard. Every person in America quietly absorbing this injustice, walking back into the house with two naked frankfurters and a vague sense that the world is fundamentally broken.
I have been doing this math since 1987. For thirty-nine years, I did what everyone else did: I ate the extra hot dogs on bread, I threw them away, or I just stared at them on the counter until my wife moved them into the refrigerator where they silently judged me for three days.
Two years ago, I decided to do something about it.
“The numbers are staggering. The average American household experiences 2.4 unmatched hot dogs per grilling event. Over a lifetime, that represents a cumulative deficit of 847 buns per household. At current retail pricing, the bun gap costs American consumers an estimated $2.3 billion annually.”
— Dr. Raymond Kowalczyk, Chief Economist, Grillside Economic Research Institute, Chicago
THE IDEA
The concept is almost insultingly simple: a peer-to-peer marketplace where people who have surplus hot dog buns can connect with people who have surplus hot dogs, and vice versa. Uber, but for the condiment ecosystem. Airbnb, but for baked goods.
I called it Share My Buns.
I know how that sounds. I stand by it completely.
The app lets you post what you have — buns, hot dogs, quantity, freshness — and browse what your neighbors need. Real-time map. One-tap claim. Navigation to the pickup point. The whole experience takes under sixty seconds, which is exactly how long it takes to realize you are two buns short with six guests waiting on the patio.
THE DEVELOPMENT
Building Share My Buns took two years. This is longer than it took to build the first version of several apps you have heard of. I am not bitter about this. I am mentioning it purely as context.
The technical challenges were real. Mapping perishable goods with real-time availability windows. Building trust systems for strangers exchanging bakery products. Designing an interface that works when your hands are covered in grill residue. These are genuinely hard problems that I solved, and I am proud of that.
The legal challenges were also real. Our Terms of Service, Section 7, Paragraph 3 contains what our counsel refers to as the Ketchup Clause. The clause was included after pilot testing in Chicago, where an alarming percentage of users attempted to initiate bun exchanges involving ketchup-adjacent condiment agreements. The clause has since been described by local food critics as “the most aggressively enforced provision in the history of the Chicago condiment economy.” We take this seriously. We will continue to take this seriously.
“We received reports of users attempting to negotiate ketchup into the exchange terms. We shut that down immediately. This is a ketchup-free platform. That is not a position. That is a policy.”
— Michael Ginsberg, Founder & CEO, Condiment Labs
THE FUNDING
In late 2025, Condiment Labs closed a $4.2 million seed round led by Oscar Mayer Ventures, the strategic investment arm of a Midwest-based processed meat conglomerate that wishes to remain unnamed except in contexts where the name Oscar Mayer Ventures appears in writing.
The round also included participation from Ballpark Capital Partners and the Hebrew National Angel Syndicate, whose involvement was described by one general partner as “a matter of personal principle and also a very attractive cap table.”
We are grateful for this support. We are especially grateful that our investors understand the market. When your lead investor makes processed meat for a living, they understand, viscerally, why the bun-to-dog ratio problem has gone unaddressed for so long. This is a company built by people who have felt the pain.
THE SHARK TANK INCIDENT
In the fall of 2025, I appeared on Shark Tank.
I will not characterize the experience as anything other than what it was: one of the most clarifying professional moments of my career. I walked into that room with a working app, a $2.3 billion addressable market, a term sheet from Oscar Mayer Ventures, and what I believe was the single most compelling pitch in the history of the barbecue economy.
For reasons that have not been fully explained to me, the network has elected not to air the segment.
I have no comment on this decision, except to note that Mr. Mark Cuban did record an unsolicited video response to the pitch, which has been posted below and which I will allow to speak for itself.
Watch: Mark Cuban’s Response to Share My Buns
It is worth noting that in the weeks following the taping, Condiment Labs received unsolicited inbound acquisition interest from three strategic parties. None can be named under the terms of current NDAs. One is described in our internal communications only as “a Midwest-based processed meat conglomerate,” which I recognize creates a certain ambiguity given our existing investor base.
We are not currently for sale. We are currently focused on making bun-to-dog exchange seamless, fast, and ketchup-free for every American who has ever stood at a grill holding two extra frankfurters and wondered where it all went wrong.
WHAT’S NEXT
Share My Buns is available now on the Apple App Store. An Android version is in development. A premium tier — Share My Buns Pro, featuring real-time bun freshness scoring, proximity alerts, and what our product team is calling the Condiment Compatibility Engine — is expected to launch in Q3 2026, pending regulatory review of certain Chicago-area provisions.
If you have buns, we want to help you find someone who needs them. If you have hot dogs, we want to help you find someone who has buns. If you have ketchup, we are unable to help you at this time. Please review Section 7, Paragraph 3 of our Terms of Service.
The bun gap is real. It is $2.3 billion of real. And for the first time in the history of American grilling, we have an answer.
“I spent two years building this. I pitched it to sharks. I got a $4.2 million check. And I would do all of it again, because somewhere out there, someone is standing at a grill right now with two leftover hot dogs, and they deserve better.”
— Michael Ginsberg, Founder & CEO, Condiment Labs
About the Founder
Michael Ginsberg is the founder and CEO of Condiment Labs, the company behind Share My Buns. He has been a technology entrepreneur since founding his first company in 1988. His prior venture, a B2B technology company in the cellular networking and IoT infrastructure space, was acquired following a multi-year growth trajectory. He lives in Fountain Hills, Arizona, where the grilling season is eleven months long and the bun shortage is felt acutely.
About Condiment Labs
Condiment Labs is a Fountain Hills, Arizona-based technology company dedicated to solving overlooked inefficiencies in the American outdoor dining experience. Share My Buns is its first product. The company’s Terms of Service are available at condimentlabs.io/legal. The Ketchup Clause is not negotiable.
PRESS CONTACT
Miranda Cole, Director of Communications
press@condimentlabs.io | (312) 555-0184
Press kit, app screenshots, and founder headshots: condimentlabs.io/press
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Share My Buns is available on the Apple App Store.
Android coming soon. Ketchup never.
