Entrepreneurial failure often subjects entrepreneurs to social stigma. Entrepreneurs can employ impression management strategies to purpose fully influence the audience’s legitimacy judgments of their failures, thus mitigating social stigma. However, few studies have explored which impression management strategies can garner legitimacy judgments from the public in the context of entrepreneurial failure. Drawing on grounded theory, this paper analyzes public narratives and corresponding online comments post-failure to identify three types of impression management strategies: Decision mistakes, action mistakes, and comprehensive reflection. It also identifies three types of legitimacy judgments: Content legitimacy, entrepreneur legitimacy, and entrepreneurial venture legitimacy. The study investigates the mechanisms through which impression management strategies affect legitimacy judgments and constructs a model of impression management strategies for Chinese entrepreneurs to obtain legitimacy from online audiences after failures. The findings reveal unique connotations and operational rules of impression management strategies in the Chinese context that differ from previous studies. The research elucidates mechanisms by which entrepreneurs’use of impression management strategies can influence online audiences’ legitimacy judgments, making significant contributions to theories related to impression management and legitimacy following entrepreneurial failure. It also provides crucial insights for entrepreneurs in selecting appropriate impression management strategies to handle online audiences’ legitimacy judgments after failures.