This research investigates the impact of potentials drawn from the external environment, so-called enablement on the creation of a family new venture. Based on the framework of External Enabler and family capital theory, we posit that three characteristics of enablement (i.e., opacity, agency-intensity, and controllability) affect entrepreneurs’ decision to involve family members in new venture creation. We decompose 1,552 decision policies nested within a sample of potential entrepreneurs. Research findings suggest that entrepreneurs’ willingness to involve their family members in new venture creation increases as the agency-intensity of enablement decreases and the controllability of enablement increases. We further find that entrepreneurs’ prior start-up experience moderate these relationships by enhancing the positive effect of low agency-intensity and mitigating the positive effect of high controllability. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications.