diff --git a/tools/_venv_common.sh b/tools/_venv_common.sh
index 720dcaeab..ddbb02c62 100755
--- a/tools/_venv_common.sh
+++ b/tools/_venv_common.sh
@@ -12,13 +12,13 @@ rm -rf *.egg-info
 # `/home/jakub/dev/letsencrypt/letsencrypt/venv/bin/python2` and
 # `venv/bin/python2` are the same file
 mv $VENV_NAME "$VENV_NAME.$(date +%s).bak" || true
-virtualenv --no-site-packages $VENV_NAME $VENV_ARGS
+virtualenv --no-site-packages --setuptools $VENV_NAME $VENV_ARGS
 . ./$VENV_NAME/bin/activate
 
 # Separately install setuptools and pip to make sure following
 # invocations use latest
-pip install -U setuptools
 pip install -U pip
+pip install -U setuptools
 pip install "$@"
 
 set +x