Grant Arnott built Click Frenzy from his bedroom into Australia's most iconic online sale event. Then one private equity decision cost him nearly everything, including, for a while, his reason to stay.
He chose this conversation over every other request. When Click Frenzy and Power Retail went into receivership in March 2026, interview requests came in from multiple outlets. Grant turned them all down. Add To Cart was the only interview he agreed to do.
Grant founded Power Retail in 2010 as a one-person media business built to champion Australian ecommerce. Two years later he launched Click Frenzy, Australia's original online mega-sale event, modelled on the US Black Friday format before that term had any real currency here. For over a decade he ran both businesses debt-free, funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars through Australian retailers and building the events and publications the industry grew up inside.
Then he took a private equity deal. The business was profitable. It was cashflow positive. He didn't need to. He's since described it as the greatest regret of his life. In this episode, Grant tells that story for the first time.
Today, we're discussing:
Why Grant took private equity money when Click Frenzy was already flying, what he hoped the partnership would deliver, and the moment in mid-2022 when it became clear the deal had fundamentally changed who he was in the business [12:40]
The phone call where a board member told him he could return as CEO but only for no salary and only if he repaid his dividends, with Kylie in tears beside him. Why that one conversation became the turning point into the darkest period of his life [29:57]
Standing at the kerb of a main road after board meetings and calculating his $10 million insurance policy against his debts. Grant describes weighing up, in specific detail, whether his family would be financially better off without him [37:29]
The morning he burst into tears getting his coffee and knew something had to change, the psychologist he found shortly after, and why getting help was "the best money I ever spent" [40:29]
Being named industry person of the year at the ORIA’s while privately calculating life insurance payouts. Grant on why public recognition made the shame harder, not easier, and how he learned to deliberately separate his identity from the business. [46:18]
"I'm out of business prison now": what Grant is building next, why he is a builder not a shopper, and why the AI tools available today make starting fresh more exciting than when he launched Power Retail in 2010 [55:09]
Connect with Grant Arnott
If you or someone you know is struggling you may contact:
Lifeline: 13 11 14 — https://www.lifeline.org.au
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 — https://www.beyondblue.org.au
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