It is well documented that getting venture capital or angel investment these days is difficult  (see here or here for examples).  So when we had the opportunity to talk with the Vijay Bhatter, CEO and founder of India Forums (www.india-forums.com), about his successful and fully bootstrapped online portal, we welcomed the opportunity to hear from someone who has built a site with over 385,000 members, 3 million monthly visits and 45 million pageviews all without any venture capital money - fully bootstrapped.

Vijay and team run Cyberax, an IT services company, which has helped fuel the growth and provide investment capital for India-Forums.  And of course, our conversation with Vijay also is in line with our goal of highlighting promising startups and entrepreneurs throughout the world.

For those of you not familiar with Indian television programs, Bollywood, etc, (we suspect it is many of you reading this), India-Forums is one of the biggest sites you’ve probably never heard of.  Irrespective of your knowledge of Bollywood, the site’s significant traction, recent launches of related web portals and ambition to be the #1 website in India make this a very interesting startup to follow and one whose success may offer some lessons to current or aspiring entrepreneurs.

We talked with Vijay about his company, his growth plans, his desire to raise venture capital ($8 million) for his India-centric web portals and also discussed the India-Forums company culture and the Indian startup scene more generally.

The entire interview can be found on India-Forum’s ChubbyBrain company profile on the “Inside Info” tab which can be found here.  Excerpts of the interview with Vijay are below as well, but we highly recommend you check out the company’s profile to learn more about India-Forums and to read the entire interview with Vijay.

So Vijay, briefly, describe India-Forums and what it is and when was it founded?  How did you come up with the idea for India-Forums and what problem it is trying to solve for its users?

We were launched in December 2003.  Our goal was bridge the gap between Indian television industry and its audience globally and bring them together to interact and take feedback.

The portal started as a blog on Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi (adaptation of Betty La Fea which was adapted into Ugly Betty on American Television).  With a lack of a democratic forum, website, or community besides Yahoo groups at that time, India-Forums provided a platform for television viewers to voice their opinion.  As an open forum, members did not have to register in order to read updates or look through the portal and the comments posted by others.  It allowed for people to adapt to the idea of a community based on their favorite Indian Television shows bringing fans together to ultimately discuss, debate and voice their opinions about the entertainment they consume on Indian Television.

We’ve highlighted some of India-Forums traffic and member numbers.  How does India-Forums make money?

The primary way for the website to make money is via Direct AdSales on the site and newsletter and through Network ads.

Other revenue streams are also opening up like charging celebrities to get listed in our database, creating wallpapers and the latest being conducting Market Research for different shows on India-Forums.com as it is the only online portal with a niche Indian Television audience.

Who are your main competitors and what do you think differentiates you from competitor offerings?

Our competitors are in several sectors.  Beginning with the online communities, we compete with online groups and Indian social networking websites like BigAdda (www.bigadda.com), Ibibo (www.ibibo.com)  and Orkut (www.orkut.com) which also have groups for fans to come together.  We are also competing via our portal TellyBuzz.com with websites and all news publications that carry Indian Television News.  Our last group of competitors are Bollywood websites as we have our very own Bollywood section and our parent company Cyberax Media is also in the process of launching BollyCurry.com.

India-Forums has an Alexa rank of nearly 2500-3000.  What has led to India-Forums success?

India-Forums had the first mover advantage as it was one of the first online communities to get into the Indian entertainment arena.  Nonetheless, a huge amount of the success can be attributed to team work.  The dedicated development team members who volunteer to keep the forum running, our team which works day and night on the technical and designing aspects and the members who instill life into the forum via their discussions and participation.  Our members have been able to associate with the forum and felt like it is their second home and thanks to them we have achieved success in the Alexa Rankings and we hope to climb higher.

Are you angel investor or venture capital backed?  Are you currently fundraising and how much are you seeking?  How would you describe the current fundraising environment?

India-Forums is part of Cyberax and has been continuously bootstrapping its own growth plans.  However, we are open to investments as that will help us grow faster; we are looking for the right partner though not only financially invests in the company but also brings the right synergies that will further speed up our growth.  We are currently seeking to raise funds of around 8 million dollars in tranches to take India-Forums.com and our other allied portals to the next level.

The current fundraising environment is not very positive due to the economic situation but nonetheless opportunities are available for those who are at the right place in the right time.

What is the ultimate goal for India-Forums, e.g., how would you define success?

India-Forums is the number one discussion portal but our aim is to become the number one Indian website online.  For us success is a journey not a destination. Growth for us is getting into new avenues and proving ourselves within each niche.  Whether it was our past projects like Telly Buzz or our future ideas like Celebrity Blogs and some that I can not reveal as its proprietary information, we always want to break new ground and ultimately keep adding to our portal to make it more addictive and loved by our members and the Indian Entertainment industry through our differentitated offerings.

How is the current economy impacting India-Forums?  What challenges are you encountering?  What opportunities is the down economy creating for you?

The current economic trend has definitely affected India-Forums as our advertising revenue has dropped, though by a small percentage. The problem we are currently encountering is that we have had to slow down our expansion plans due to market conditions.

As rightly said there is an opportunity in every adversity and for us the opportunities have come out of meeting the challenges of streamlining our processes, increasing productivity and optimizing costs wherever possible. We are working on finding different ways to increase revenues.  For us it’s a great time to increase our market share for example as more people are turning towards the Internet than ever before.  Online advertising is said to be the only sector of advertising that will grow this year as all others may drop due to the economic situation.  So we are positive and hopeful that for us this year will bring new opportunities!

What other startup(s) do you admire and why?

Though no longer startups, a social networking website like Facebook is definitely admirable.  The way the website caught on and has become a craze is remarkable.  I also admire the team behind the website for their constant innovation as I have noticed that they keep on adding new features, changing the layout and not letting their audience become bored of their website and this is crucial.

What startups or areas of innovation do you feel there is too much hype about?

Right now I would say there is too much hype about social networking and web 2.0.  These phenomenons have caught on quite quickly but I feel the true test will be whether they stay around long enough or if they will disappear as trends of yesterday.

What do you think of the Indian startup scene?  Do you see other promising Indian startups emerging?  If yes, who?

I believe that the Indian startup scene is quite positive.  Indians are known to be famous for their careers in technology and I really do feel that some of the best startups and innovations can come from India.

What are the opportunities for Indian startups and what are some of the challenges of being a startup in India?

Being an Indian startup, one has a huge audience they can start catering to as Indian is, as everyone knows, one of the most populated countries in the world.  However, I feel that exposure to the western world and especially getting funding for one’s project becomes very difficult when the startup is from India as the competition is high.

We’ll continue to keep track of India-Forums and see how they’re progressing against their goal of becoming the #1 online destination in India via the company’s ChubbyBrain profile.  To learn more about how India-Forums came into existence, you can visit http://www.india-forums.com/theatre.