Designing Your Life France

What Designing Your Life France does

Designing Your Life France (operating through the SARL Mario Varvoglis & Associés, headquartered in Fontaine le Port, Île-de-France) is the official French licensee of Stanford University's Designing Your Life methodology, originally developed by professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The company delivers Design Thinking-based workshops for personal and professional life design, applying human-centered design principles and positive psychology to help individuals navigate career transitions and to help organizations develop self-leadership capabilities. Its intellectual foundation is a 5-module experiential process (Initiation, Empathy, Creativity, Prototyping, Action) supplemented by frameworks such as the Three Odysseys and Design Thinking mindsets.

The company operates two core product lines: Open LifeDesign, a B2C workshop for individuals offered in hybrid (2-day in-person in Paris) or fully online (5 weekly 2.5-hour sessions) format, capped at 20 participants; and LifeDesign@Work, a B2B corporate program targeting team agility, self-leadership, and organizational transformation. A third offering, CoDev-DYL, provides post-workshop peer-based co-development follow-up. Programs are eligible for OPCO professional training fund financing due to the company's Datadocké certification.

Designing Your Life France is operated by a small team of approximately three to four certified DYL facilitators led by Mario Varvoglis (PhD in cognitive sciences, former researcher at Princeton and NYU), supported by Sophie Kim (INSEAD/Sciences Po, former corporate executive and cosmetics entrepreneur) and Sophie de Villoutreys-Béziade (former HR Director with 20 years corporate experience), with an additional coach, Rocio Emiliozzi. The business model is professional services: revenue is generated through workshop registrations (B2C) and corporate program fees (B2B), with no publicly disclosed pricing and no external institutional investment. Marketing is conducted primarily through the company website, LinkedIn, professional referrals, and the workshop experience itself.

Name

Designing Your Life France

Legal name

MARIO VARVOGLIS & ASSOCIES

Website

https://designdevie-dyl.fr

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Designing Your Life France is the official French licensee of Stanford's Designing Your Life methodology, delivering Design Thinking-based workshops for individuals seeking life/career transitions and for corporate teams pursuing self-leadership and organizational agility.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Life Design Coaching

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Wellness Program Design & Accountability Coaching (HSADAGAC)

Keywords

• Life design coaching
• Design thinking workshops
• Career transition programs
• Corporate training services
• Personal development courses

Headquarters

HQ city

Fontaine le Port

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. LifeDesign Workshop (B2C): Experiential workshop for individuals seeking career or life transitions, offered in-person in Paris or online. Format: 2-day intensive or 4-week online course with weekly live sessions.
2. LifeDesign@Work Workshop (B2B): Corporate programs for team development and self-leadership, delivered in hybrid or 100% online formats. Includes Co-DYL follow-up for ongoing peer support and practice anchoring.
3. OPCO/Employer Financing: As a Datadocké certified training organization, programs can be financed through French OPCO (professional training funds) for employed individuals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Designing Your Life France delivers Design Thinking-based experiential workshops that help individuals and corporate teams redesign their life and career paths. The company operates two flagship programs: Open LifeDesign, a 2-day (or 5-session online) workshop for individuals, and LifeDesign@Work, a corporate program for team self-leadership development. Workshops are capped at 20 participants and follow a 5-module methodology (Initiation, Empathy, Creativity, Prototyping, Action).

Product overview

Designing Your Life France operates as a service-based educational company offering Design Thinking-based workshops and programs for personal and professional development. The core offerings consist of the LifeDesign Workshop (Open LifeDesign) for individuals seeking to redesign their life and career paths, and LifeDesign@Work for corporate teams and organizations. Both programs apply Stanford University's Design Thinking methodology to help participants navigate career transitions, find meaning, and develop agile problem-solving skills. The company also provides CoDev-DYL as a follow-up component and incorporates Design Thinking training modules within its programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LifeDesign Workshop: In-person 2-day workshop in Paris for personal development using Design Thinking methodology
• LifeDesign@Work
• Open LifeDesign

Products and services

• Open LifeDesign (LifeDesign Workshop for individuals)

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Stanford University (Bill Burnett & Dave Evans)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOriginal source of the Designing Your Life methodology. The founders Burnett and Evans developed the course at Stanford, which became the university's most popular course. DYL France operates as an official licensed partner.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Mindvalley: Personal growth and transformation education platform offering online courses, quests, and live events in life design, career, and well-being. Comparable to DYL France's B2C Open LifeDesign offering for individuals seeking life/career transformation, delivered digitally rather than via live workshop.
• InsideOut Development: Coaching and leadership development firm offering experiential programs (including InsideOut Coaching) for corporate teams and individuals. Comparable to DYL France on coaching methodology and corporate training buyer overlap, with overlapping self-leadership themes.
• Modern Elder Academy: School and workshop-based programs for mid-career transitions and reinvention, founded by Chip Conley. Directly comparable to DYL France's B2C life-design workshops — same target persona (mid-career individuals seeking purpose and transition), similar experiential workshop format.

Broad incumbents

• FranklinCovey: Global leadership and effectiveness training company offering structured curricula (e.g., 7 Habits) for individuals and organizations. Comparable to DYL France's structured-workshop-for-self-leadership model for corporate buyers, with overlapping audiences in HR/L&D decision-making.
• IDEO U: Design Thinking training arm of IDEO, offering courses and certificates in human-centered design for individuals and organizations. Comparable to DYL France's Design Thinking methodology and corporate training offering, though IDEO U's curriculum is broader and brand-agnostic while DYL France specializes in life/career application.
• BetterUp: Enterprise coaching and mental fitness platform serving global corporates with on-demand coaching, self-leadership content, and analytics. Comparable to DYL France's LifeDesign@Work corporate offering on the buyer side (HR/L&D buyers), though delivered via app rather than live workshops.

Regional players

• CoachHub: Berlin-based digital coaching platform focused on European enterprises, offering on-demand coaching across leadership, career, and well-being. Comparable buyer (European HR/L&D) and adjacent product (self-leadership development) to DYL France's LifeDesign@Work, but digital-first rather than workshop-based.

Direct peers

• Designing Your Life (US/Stanford): The original Stanford DYL program founded by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, licensing the same Designing Your Life methodology to DYL France. Most directly comparable peer — same product, same brand DNA, same workshop format, different geography (US vs France).

Others

• Gaia: Streaming platform for yoga, meditation, and personal transformation content serving individuals seeking life-purpose and well-being improvement. Comparable to DYL France's B2C audience (individuals seeking personal growth) but on-demand video rather than live workshop.
• School of Positive Psychology: Asia-Pacific training and certification provider for positive psychology and coaching practitioners, whose curricula overlap with DYL France's Design Thinking + positive psychology foundation. Comparable on methodology (positive psychology applied to life and work) though different delivery (certification vs. life-design workshop).

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/designing-your-life-france

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Designing Your Life France