Company story

Neil Patel Digital, LLC is a privately-held, limited liability company founded in California on December 29, 2016. The company declared its business address in San Diego, California on the Articles of Organization through the Secretary of State in California. Attorney Sasha Kamfiroozie was named as the company’s Agent for Service of Process. The California Secretary of State filing reports Neil Patel Digital, LLC is managed by one manager. Cheyenne Moseley, Assistant Secretary, signed off the information on the corporate filing and its attachments as true and correct.

Current filling status

On March 5, 2018, Neil Patel Digital, LLC, filed a Statement of Information in the office of the Secretary of State of the State of California. Michael Kamo completed The Statement of Information as the sole owner of the company. The form official declared Neil Patel Digital, LLC as a digital marketing agency. Neil Patel is listed in the List of Additional Managers or Members.

On October 20, 2018, Sasha Kamifiroozie, the Attorney of Neil Patel Digital, LLC, filed another Statement of Information in California. The updated Statement of Information lists a new business address in San Diego, California.

As of October 2019, Neil Patel Digital has over 100 team members, six offices around the world, and 2.3 million monthly blog readers.

Company ownership

Neil Patel Digital, LLC is named after entrepreneur, Neil Patel, however, he isn’t the owner of the company dispute it being named after him. According to the Statements of Information submitted to the state of California, Michael Kamo is the sole owner of Neil Patel Digital, LLC. Michael Kamo, better known as Mike Kamo, is a longtime friend of Neil Patel.

The relationship goes as far back as high school; after high school, Neil and his friend, Mike, would go on to work on a series of projects including the Nutrition Secrets blog, “The 100k Challenge,” and Neil Patel Digital. 

Neil Patel not verified as owner

Neil Patel despite being the namesake of Neil Patel Digital is not the official owner of the company, but he is listed as an additional manager in a Statement of Information submitted in March 2018. The About section on NPDigital.com list Patel and Kamo as part of the leadership. Patel possesses the titles of CMO and Co-Founder, while Kamo possesses the titles of CEO and Co-Founder.

The digital marketing agency uses Patel’s marketing strategies and techniques to serve their clients. While Patel doesn’t personally consult with every client, he trained all his employees to follow his marketing expertise.

Neil Patel Digital uses Patel’s popularity and online presence as a way of acquiring customers. 

Neil Patel’s fame and reputation

Neil Patel is the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital, Crazy Egg, HelloBar, and KISSmetrics. Patel is renowned as a “top influencer on the web” by the Wall Street Journal and “one of the top 10 marketers” by Forbes. According to his LinkedIn profile, his blog generates 3 million visitors per month, while his podcast generates over 1 million listens per month.

Neil Patel is considered a top influencer in marketing by major publications due to his strong social media following and presence. Neil Patel has a vast online following with a generally good online reputation.

As of October 2019, Patel's social media following includes:

• 967,000 followers on Facebook,
• 445K subscribers on YouTube,
• 337.2K followers on Twitter,
• and 61.3 followers on Instagram.

Neil Patel's critics

While he has a generally positive reputation, there are different opinions on Neil Patel. For example, Carlo Pacis of Wishpond described Patel as “tip-toeing the line between genius marketer and mad marketing scientist.” Pacis goes on to commend Patel for his daring marketing experiments and breaks down “four of the grandest, most controversial marketing strategies” employed by Neil Patel.

Emily Glen, a reporter of The Disrupt, described Patel as “a gloriously geeky creature made of pure ego, dumb luck and some of the blackest hat SEO techniques the industry has ever seen” and his blog as “a great guilty pleasure kind of read, frequently riding the narrow rail between complete self obsession and a total lack of self-awareness.” Glen concludes Patel’s “relentless self-promotion” is the reason for his fame in the digital marketing world.

Websites and services offered by Neil Patel Digital

Neil Patel Digital, LLC owns and operates NPDigital.com, formerly known as NeilPatelDigital.com. NPDigital.com is the official website of the digital marketing agency Neil Patel and his high school friend, Mike Kamo. NPDigital.com is dedicated to offering search engine optimization, content marketing, paid media, social media, email marketing, lead capture, and strategy and funnel development.

Domain change from NeilPatelDigital.com to NPDigital.com 

NeilPatelDigital.com served as the company's website from June 2017 to June 2019. As of June 2019, Neil Patel Digital operates under NPDigital.com. The reason for the web site's domain name change is unknown. When comparing NeilPatelDigital.com and NPDigital.com, the websites are very similar but, the new site seems to shift focus away from its namesake, Neil Patel. NPDigital.com has fewer pictures of Neil Patel on the homepage and only pictures him in under the "Leadership" section of the about page.

Controversies with Neil Patel Digital

Neil Patel's online reputation is mostly positive. However, Patel and the companies associated with his brand have had controversies over the years.

Federal Trade Commission investigation

Kissmetrics was a web analytics company that helps you optimize customer lifetime by the customer. In an interview with Andrew Warner (the founder of Mixenergy), Neil Patel offered insight into the circumstances behind the investigation.

"Hiten and I co-founded the company. Within the first year to two years, let’s say, two years, we got up to around 500 grand a month in recurring revenue, roughly around there. We got an FTC investigation class-action lawsuit. Derailed the company. New CEO came in place. It didn’t work out. They put in another new CEO and he didn’t work out either. And the company’s revenue stayed the same if not decreased over time. They were never able to continually grow it." - Neil Patel

Neil Patel’s company KISSmetric was at the center of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation, which came about due to negative press coverage about privacy which started with Wired Magazine and reached the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Huffington Post. The analytics company was sued in August 2011 when UC Berkeley research uncovered the “undeletable cookie” by KISSmetrics. In a report from Wired, researchers called the technique “sneaky,” because the KISSmetrics tracking service couldn’t be evaded even when users blocked cookies, turned off storage in Flash, or used incognito mode on browsers.

The lawsuit was expensive and the client list suffered; Hulu was one of the first clients to cut ties with KISSmetrics. KISSmetrics needed to raise money as the product suffered and they lost their customer base. True Ventures, a venture capital firm from Silicon Valley, helped KISSmetrics through their difficult times. 

After 12 months, a settlement was reached on the two plaintiffs split $5,000 while lawyers received over $500,000 in legal fees. According to a report by Wired.com, there was no payout for the real victims of KISSmetrics, the general public. However, KISSmetrics agreed not to use sneaky methods to track users — unless users are given notice and they consent to tracking.

In the same interview with Andrew Warner of Mixergy, Patel clarified the resolution of the class action lawsuits.

“But you have insurance so the insurance is settled. And they pay the fine which is cheaper than trying to fight it in court. So at the time our lawyer who’s the head of FTC for Facebook, Ashley Beringer, she’s like, 'We can probably beat this in court but it’s going to cost you around 1, 1.1 million bucks. We have insurance.' She was just like, 'It’s better for us to just use insurance us to pay a few 100 grand to half a million bucks but the insurance pay the rest and settle because that’s cheaper than us paying a million out our pocket.' That’s what we ended up doing.” - Neil Patel

Buying links from AudienceBloom 

A 2018 article published by Buzzfeed News accused Neil Patel of allegedly buying links to promote himself, his brand, and the companies associated with himself. Buzzfeed contributor, John Christian, reported Jayson DeMers, the founder of AudienceBoom and a featured writer for some of the world’s most prestigious publications offered clients a service securing them “brand mentions” through “major media publications” through AudienceBloom. DeMers wrote for prestigious publications such as Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, Mashable, Time, TechCrunch, and Wall Street Journal. The Buzzfeed article named Neil Patel as one of the clients DeMers mentioned in his articles.

DeMers wrote about Patel on multiple occasions. The Buzzfeed article found DeMers wrote about Patel multiple times, including four times on works published on Entrepreneur. DeMers referenced Patel, his blogs, and companies in 12 different articles. DeMers referred to Patel as a “highly successful entrepreneur,” a “marketing conversion expert,” and a “world-renowned marketing expert” on Entrepreneur, NBC News, and Business Insider. 

Patel denied buying links. Christian reported Patel insisted he was never a paying client of DeMers or AudienceBloom. Patel allegedly sent a reporter “four back-to-back emails vigorously denying he’d hired the firm and threatening legal action” before Buzzfeed News contacted him for comment. Patel declared he never paid AudienceBloom for “marketing or link services” and offered to prove his assertion by allowing a third-party accountant to review his financial records. In an email, Patel asserted, “I never paid Jayson or AudienceBloom. I met Jayson 5 to 8 years ago in Seattle and let him use my name as a testimonial as we are friends.”

Buzzfeed News stuck by their story. Buzzfeed News maintained Patel “did more than just allow DeMers to use his name.” Buzzfeed found a YouTube video on the AudienceBloom channel featuring Patel praising marketing work the company did for him. Buzzfeed reported Patel declared in the video he had been using AudienceBloom for approximately two years and “when it comes to SEO, content marketing, and guest posting, and they’ve been doing an excellent job.” Buzzfeed News claims the video was removed after they reached Patel for comment about his testimony. Additional, Patel deleted a blog post he wrote about AudienceBloom and AudienceBloom removed Patel’s testimony from their site.

AudienceBloom’s COO gave Neil Patel favorable mentions. John Christian from Buzzfeed News also found, AudienceBloom’s COO, Drew Hendricks, also gave Patel and his companies favorable mentions and links in a series of nine articles in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Inc. Hendricks’ friendly media coverage included, adding Patel to a list of “Inspiring Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2017” and called KISSmetrics, one business founded by Patel, “above and beyond” a competitor. Hendricks denied accepting payment for links in his work and being directed by AudienceBloom to promote Patel and his companies. Furthermore, Hendricks declared he wasn’t aware Patel was one of AudienceBloom’s clients.

Buzzfeed News reported another employee from AudienceBloom, Samuel Edwards, wrote two stories mentioning Patel in Inc. Edwards never replied to questions from Buzzfeed News.

Deceptive business practices

In October 2014, Author and blogger, Craig Kelley, wrote an article called “Trust is Key to Web Success (Neil Patel/QuickSprout Scam)” on his website targetting Neil Patel’s deceptive business practices.

In the article, Kelley recounts his experience using the Free Website Analysis feature on Quick Sprout, a website started by Patel in early 2008. The web analysis told Kelley his website had 11 errors. Curious about the results, Kelley tried analyzing several other websites, including Yahoo.com, and they all yielded the same results.

As a self-proclaimed “developer of fancy websites,” Kelley inspected the code of the Free Web Analysis to check the authenticity of the error check. Kelley found a “simple Javascript that basically is a timer that updates a status bar progress and text (errors found). ” Kelley declared the analysis as “bogus,” since websites are not being analyzed and the tool will find always find 11 no matter what site is analyzed. He tried to contact Neil Patel and found his personal website, NeilPatel.com, contained the same misleading code. Craig Kelley provided screenshots and a video recording to support his claims.