diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 64fbe1815..b70f3727d 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -41,14 +41,12 @@ jobs:
             bazel build --config ci //tests/...
       - run:
           name: Run tests
-          # bazel does not support recursive bazel call, so we
-          # cannot use bazel run here because the test runner uses
-          # bazel
           command: |
-            bazel build --config ci //tests:run-tests
-            # run the start script test
-            ./bazel-ci-bin/tests/run-tests --match "/startup script/"
+            # Run the start script test.
+            # Doesn't use the test suite binary, because that depends on nixpkgs dependencies.
+            ./tests/run-start-script.sh
             # TODO: enable all tests for bindists
+            # (this will require tests to both work with nixpkgs and hazel backends)
 
   # ATTN: when you change anything here, don’t forget to copy it to the build-darwin section
   build-linux-nixpkgs:
diff --git a/tests/RunTests.hs b/tests/RunTests.hs
index 4891b9876..b4266f340 100644
--- a/tests/RunTests.hs
+++ b/tests/RunTests.hs
@@ -75,22 +75,7 @@ main = hspec $ do
       outputSatisfy p' (bazel ["run", "//tests/multi_repl:c_multi_repl", "--", "-ignore-dot-ghci", "-e", ":show targets"])
 
   it "startup script" $ do
-    assertSuccess (safeShell [
-        "pwd=$(pwd)"
-      , "cd $(mktemp -d)"
-      , "$pwd/start"
-
-      -- Copy the bazel configuration, this is only useful for CI
-      , "mkdir tools"
-      , "cp $pwd/.bazelrc .bazelrc"
-
-      -- Set Nixpkgs in environment variable to avoid hardcoding it in
-      -- start script itself
-      , "NIX_PATH=nixpkgs=$pwd/nixpkgs/default.nix \
-        \bazel build \
-        \--config=ci \
-        \//:example"
-      ])
+    assertSuccess (safeShell ["./tests/run-start-script.sh"])
 
   describe "failures" $ do
     all_failure_tests <- bazelQuery "kind(rule, //tests/failures/...) intersect attr('tags', 'manual', //tests/failures/...)"
diff --git a/tests/run-start-script.sh b/tests/run-start-script.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..dc472b716
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/run-start-script.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Run the start script in its own workspace
+# and build the example binary target.
+
+set -e
+
+pwd=$(pwd)
+cd $(mktemp -d)
+$pwd/start
+
+# Copy the bazel configuration, this is only useful for CI
+mkdir tools
+cp $pwd/.bazelrc .bazelrc
+
+# Set Nixpkgs in environment variable to avoid hardcoding it in
+# start script itself
+NIX_PATH=nixpkgs=$pwd/nixpkgs/default.nix \
+  bazel build \
+  --config=ci \
+  //:example