In the volatile landscape of modern entrepreneurship, the iterative refinement of opportunities is an essential strategy for startups to pivot challenges into prospects. Current scholarship lacks sufficient examination of the precursors to the genesis of such iterations. Some studies disproportionately underscore internal systemic drivers, highlighting the subjectivity of the entrepreneur while disregarding the external environmental dynamics. Others overemphasize the role of external information acquisition, overlooking the entrepreneur’s unique processing of this information. Hence, the entrepreneurial narrative that incorporates characteristics from both internal and external systems may provide a more comprehensive explanation of how opportunities are created. Although, there is still a lack of research on whether and how entrepreneurial narratives influence the iteration of entrepreneurial opportunities. Drawing upon sensemaking and dual systems theories, this study examined the process mechanism of entrepreneurial narrative driven iterative opportunities for start-ups from the two perspectives of cognition and emotion, and constructed a moderated dual-mediator model by incorporating entrepreneurs' personal traits as boundary conditions. Specifically, First, based on the consideration that entrepreneurial narratives are characterized by both internal and external systems, this study constructs a theoretical model of how entrepreneurial narratives affect opportunity iteration from the perspectives of information acquisition from the external environment as well as internal information processing. Second, we establish a cognitive-emotional dual-path model of entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial hope in the influence of entrepreneurial narratives on opportunity iteration, i.e., the cognitive path of entrepreneurial narratives affecting opportunity iteration of new ventures through entrepreneurial learning and the emotional path of entrepreneurial narratives acting on opportunity iteration through entrepreneurial hope. Finally, we explored the moderating role of promotion regulatory focus on the entrepreneurial hope pathway and the moderating role of prevention regulatory focus on the entrepreneurial learning pathway, respectively. We took into account the interference of individual traits in their information processing process. As a result of a combination of online and offline research, the researchers obtained 325 valid questionnaires from start-ups at three different time points. Based on the results of stratified regression and bootstrap analysis of the 325 questionnaires, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) entrepreneurial narrative positively impacts opportunity iteration; 2) entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial hope mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial narrative and opportunity iteration; and 3) prevention regulatory focus plays a positive moderating role in both entrepreneurial narratives influencing entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial narratives indirectly influencing opportunity iteration through entrepreneurial learning; promotion regulatory focus plays a positive moderating role in both entrepreneurial narratives influencing entrepreneurial hope and entrepreneurial narratives indirectly influencing opportunity iteration through entrepreneurial hope. This study makes the following theoretical contributions: first, it focuses on the iterative process of entrepreneurial opportunities under the narrative perspective, which promotes the study of entrepreneurial narratives and entrepreneurial opportunities, and injects rich connotations into the theory of meaning construction. Second, adopting dual systems theory as the basis, the intermediate mechanism of entrepreneurial narratives on opportunity iteration is deeply studied, revealing the role of the dual mechanism of cognition and emotion in the influence of entrepreneurial narratives on opportunity iteration, and providing a powerful theoretical framework for explaining the influence of entrepreneurial narratives on opportunity iteration. Finally, the introduction of the moderating utility model with theoretical fit relationship expands the boundary conditions for entrepreneurial narrative utility to play a role. It provides an innovative perspective for the in-depth development of dual-systems theory and moderating focus theory. This paper provides a framework for thinking about start-up rapid transformation from a narrative perspective. According to the findings of this study, entrepreneurs should focus on acting out the story of their business, reorganizing entrepreneurial experiences and reshaping visions through narratives, and interacting with stakeholders to obtain external information to guide the iteration of opportunities. At the same time, entrepreneurs need to actively engage in entrepreneurial learning and maintain entrepreneurial hope, as well as cultivate their own promotion and prevention regulatory focus, to provide a solid foundation and a source of motivation for the iteration of entrepreneurial opportunities.