Purpose: Studies have found that founders of start-up companies are similar to students in certain psychological characteristics. Confirming this similarity would have methodological and phenomenological implications. Phenomenologically, students are a main source for recruitment in start-up companies. Methodologically, students are a more convenient sample to study than start-up founders. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: The resemblance between students and start-up founders is tested by analyses of variance of the responses of 1,509 students and 53 start-up founders to a questionnaire survey. Findings: The results indicate that, as a population, students are not entirely similar to start-up founders, though similarities were found to exist. The closest resemblance between students and founders was found for managerial, armed forces/police and medicine students; agricultural, humanities and natural science students had the least resemblance. Originality/value: Although student samples are commonly used in the study of management phenomena, the validity of this approach has not hitherto been tested, which indicates that the use of student subjects as stand-ins for start-up founders may be a practice without a solid foundation.