What to do regarding upgrade

I have around 2000 members and I'm using D 6.1.4.
I just read that the only solutions for switching to 7 is to first upgrade to 6.1.5, then to 6.1.6 and finally to 7.
I think it's rediculous, I don't have a time for that and since I have lots of mods it probably won't be sucessful.
What do you think, should I start a brand new site? But what about 2k members?

If you really want to upgrade, find someone willing to do the job for you (it will be expensive, though). Otherwise, you might as well stay where you are.

I moved a site from someone elses portal to D7 successfully. There is something to be said about upgrading. If you do not continue to grow & improve, then you're dead. It's a fact of life and a fact of the internet.

If I were you, I would leave the old site fully functional and spend a lot of time developing the new site. Then you can introduce the new site on your old site and invite member to make the switch. Over time, most of them will come over then you pick a date and "archive" the old site (basically let everyone know the site will remain but you will no longer be supporting it) and push them over to the new site.

You will lose a few but the ones that remain could be given special "loyalty" access in the new site. The new site will draw it's own new members as well.

I know, it takes lot of time (and money)

You're right about that, things change so fast on the internet, but I always hated starting things from the beginning. It took me lots of effort to build that site, if I don't move profiles to the new one it will all go to waste.

Btw, I'm willing to pay if somebody would like to work on it.

If need be i can do it.

Thanks, but I managed to transfer the site from 6.4 to 7.0.4

Care to explain how?

I hope he created a 7.0.1 site in a sub folder then ran the migration  then moved the site back to root.....

Of course, new subfolder, new datebase, even the 3rd datebase for changes.

I did from the datebase, table by table, altering and modifying the old one to suit the new one.
I'm not interested to move the entire site, just the important things, like profiles, comments, blogs, events, polls

Ah. Nicely done!