diff --git a/virtualenv/build_virtualenv.sh b/virtualenv/build_virtualenv.sh
index a864a1c..05e0c13 100755
--- a/virtualenv/build_virtualenv.sh
+++ b/virtualenv/build_virtualenv.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ echo "** activate virtualenv"
 cd $VE
 . bin/activate
 
+pip install --upgrade setuptools
 pip install --upgrade pip
 
 echo "** install packages"