When entrepreneurs interact and receive feedback they sort through and transform various subjective venture ideas into intersubjective venture concepts. This dissertation examines the dialogue of entrepreneurs in the nascent stages of opportunity development from a process theory approach to understand how entrepreneurs sort, navigate and make sense of ideas they encounter through feedback exchanges. Using conversational analysis, several conversation patterns are identified that shape the emergence process. Legitimacy associations, status quo assertions, experiential actualities, engagement hypotheticals, and deontic declarations contribute to the nonlinear opportunity emergence process. These discourse structures derived from speech acts are attended to, adopted, and implemented as they align with assessment filters of credibility, feasibility, desirability, and identity plausibility which are key elements of the opportunity interpretation process used during ideation and pivoting interactions. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation explores the very early stages of the entrepreneurship processes of ideation and opportunity development. Using speech acts theory and conversation analysis, I describe how entrepreneurs do things with words and how they navigate conversations with others about their idea. I identify different kinds of conversations that can be used to sort through confusing comments and flesh out ideas into venture concepts that make sense to the entrepreneur and those they get feedback from who help shape their ideas. I explain why entrepreneurs listen to some ideas and not others when trying to make sense of a possible pivot.