WEST PARIS — Last year, Dan Bru lost his job. A graphic designer by trade, it was difficult to find work in this economy. Tired of looking for small jobs, he started turning his ambitions toward larger projects.

“I really wanted to do something big, something to leave my mark,” Bru said.

He said the idea started with his frustration with Facebook, the world’s largest social networking website. “When you’re unemployed, you spend a lot of time on Facebook,” he said.

He found that he split his time between Facebook and sites such as Etsy.com, the arts and crafts marketplace site where he sells his artwork, Monster.com, where he searches for jobs, and eBay, where he buys and sells collectibles.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was just a big mega-site?’” he said, that incorporated Facebook, Etsy, eBay and job-searching sites. The mega-site is called Planet My Town, and getting it up and running has been Bru’s passion for more than a year.

What could make the website so successful is what Bru calls a “super-secret special ingredient” that will make Facebook obsolete. “It’s going to change the world of social media and social networking forever,” he said.

The few who know the “special ingredient” have signed confidentiality waivers, which he said has been a hard sell for potential investors. Still, he has managed to attract a little funding and has several people willing to work on the project for only a share of the company as compensation.

Ry Russell, vice president of VR Marketing Consultants in Portland, said his company is involved in the project and is working for a share of Planet My Town. “It was something that he and I connected on,” Russell said.

Russell said he and VR Marketing President Sean Violette were impressed with the concept. “It was a great user-consumer tool,” Russell said.

According to Bru, a Florida commodities broker recently offered him $2 million for complete ownership of the concept. Bru turned it down, “much to my wife’s dismay,” he said. “That was not a fun night.”

Bru was offering 90 percent of the company on eBay at the time with an opening bid of $800,000. The auction ended without any bids, but Bru said he doesn’t regret giving up the $2 million offer.

He said his share will pay off as he expects the website to be worth billions of dollars in a few years. That’s not unheard of for a successful website. Facebook could go public in 2012 at a value of up to $100 billion, according to a recent report on CNBC.

Facebook wouldn’t be the first social network toppled as bigger and better ones come along. Sites such as Friendster, MySpace and Orkut enjoyed strong success before Facebook took over.

“I see (Planet My Town) being a market leader within three years of the launch,” Bru said.

Bru said when the idea first came to him, he searched online for another site offering the feature. He called it “very simple, yet profoundly unique.”

Since then, he’s been chasing funding. Bru said he would need about $500,000 for advertising, marketing and other costs to get started.

Beyond the secret aspect, Planet My Town would be a place where users could further their careers, whether by selling goods in a marketplace or posting resumes, he said.

“Everyone’s going to have Skype readily available on their user page,” Bru said, allowing them to video chat live with friends and colleagues at any time. He said Skype developers have agreed to embed their service in the site.

He said having Skype aboard would allow job-seekers to conduct video job interviews.

“You can interview for a job in Japan, from here, and do a videoconference,” Bru said. “It would be an invaluable service to job-seekers and employers, as well.”

He said the site would come with an easy-to-understand privacy policy and an open forum where users could request and vote on possible site features.

The site is difficult to discuss without divulging too much, he said. “I’m trying to think one way and speak another.”

treaves@sunjournal.com

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