Welcome back to Confounded, where we dig into the untold stories behind building businesses—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Today, I’m joined by someone whose name might not be immediately familiar, but whose influence on the UK’s automotive and tech scenes is undeniable.
David Edmonston is the founder of the legendary PistonHeads.com, one of those rare founders who built something before the world was ready for it, and made it work anyway.
Pistonheads was a site that not only transformed the way car enthusiasts connected in the early 2000s but did it before social media was even a thing. He built it from the ground up, bootstrapped the whole way, and eventually sold it to Haymarket Media in 2007.
Since then, David’s been quietly shaping some of the biggest names in the automotive and auction world—building platforms like Collecting Cars and Watch Collecting, and most recently launching Driving Masters, a project aimed at bringing the joy of advanced driving to petrolheads everywhere.
We talk tech, the grit behind going solo, what it takes to stay relevant across decades of change—and of course, a few tales from the road along the way.
In this episode of Confounded, we talk about:
• How he built PistonHeads from scratch in a pre-social media world
• Why he still loves bootstrapped businesses
• The inside story of Collecting Cars
• What drives him now, with his latest venture Driving Masters
This one’s for anyone who’s ever built something from nothing—and wants to do it again.
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