The Enhanced Games has been derided as "a clown show" and "borderline criminal". But their founder and his backers believe in a future few have foreseen.
www.bbc.com
As their conversation progressed, D'Souza asked Thiel what his greatest current challenge was.
Thiel didn't talk about business, but a more personal concern. Gawker, a website that specialised in celebrity gossip, had written an article outing him, without his consent, as gay.
Thiel explained that he had considered suing, but didn't want to draw more attention to the site and its story.
Another option was to buy Gawker, get rid of the people responsible and change its ethos. However, to do so would reward its owners with a fat pay-off.
D'Souza listened and politely suggest a third option. Could Thiel instead secretly fund someone else's legal case against Gawker?
"I said 'Why don't you have a proxy war?'," says D'Souza. "He had never thought of that. I said I had to do some research, figure out the legality and mechanics and next time he was over we could have a coffee and talk about it."
A few weeks later, in a high-end restaurant in Berlin, D'Souza, still very much a student, laid out his plan. To find a case, build a legal team, and sue Gawker into bankruptcy would take five years and 10 million dollars. Thiel had only one question.
"Peter said, 'That'll be great. Where do I wire the money?' That was it," remembers D'Souza.