This paper examines how opportunities co-evolve with managing category ambiguity in an emerging social entrepreneurship field. Current literature lacks insight into the entrepreneurial framing process that allows combing in practice various perspectives to create social opportunities, while balancing social and economic goals. As the ambiguity of conflicting goals has been mostly investigated as an obstacle, this paper proposes ways to reposition ambiguity as a strategic lever for nascent social entrepreneurial organizations. Using data from a nascent "impact-investing" organization over three years, we apply a design science approach to analyze strategies actors use to navigate ambiguity. We develop a three-stage framing process supported by key mechanisms: a shared alternative mission, a diverse entrepreneurial team, and distributed governance. We contribute to social entrepreneurship literature by providing new foundations to manage ambiguity as a catalyzer for social change.
