Strategy-making in entrepreneurial technology firms has two connected but distinct goals, success and survival, as decision makers need to both create a firm where previously there was none and arrive at a strategy that will be profitable in the market. Through an 11-year, longitudinal, qualitative, field study of Ohm, a firm developing novel technology with the potential for industry disruption, I examine how decision makers manage these competing goals to create their emerging firm strategy, and how those decisions direct the path of the firm. I found that decision makers held a consistent, long-term strategy vision of what the firm would ultimately become while they enacted and changed their entrepreneurial creation strategy, which targeted survival and set the firm up for future success. I also found that choices made explicitly for survival and the acquisition of resources drove much of that creation strategy. In the case of Ohm, despite achieving multiple rounds of venture capital funding, a high-profile partnership with an industry incumbent, and well-reviewed commercial sales, the firm emerged with revenue from a game changing commercialized technology and an unfundable strategy. This research contributes to entrepreneurial strategy and finance by identifying the two strategies of entrepreneurial firms, uncovering how the regulatory focus of venture investors shifts from promotion to prevention after their initial investment, and how entrepreneurs managing investors’ prevention focus may alter their creation strategy to achieve short term milestones but fail to set the firm up for success.