diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 98d5fa80..164a818e 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ workflows:
       - build
       - lint
       - faucet_docker
+      - test
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -38,6 +39,9 @@ jobs:
       - run:
           name: Version information
           command: echo "node $(node --version)"; echo "yarn $(yarn --version)"
+      - run: # start early for less wait time below
+          command: ./projects/scripts/cosm/start.sh
+          background: true
       - restore_cache:
           name: Restore Yarn Package Cache
           keys:
@@ -50,13 +54,8 @@ jobs:
           key: yarn-packages-{{ checksum "yarn.lock" }}
           paths:
             - ~/.cache/yarn
-      - run:
-          command: docker pull cosmwasm/wasmd:latest
-      - run:
-          command: ./projects/scripts/cosm/start.sh
-          background: true
-      - run:
-          command: sleep 15
+      - run: # wait until cosm scripts have fully started
+          command: timeout 15 bash -c "until curl -s http://localhost:1317/node_info > /dev/null; do sleep 1; done
       - run:
           environment: COSMOS_ENABLED=1
           command: yarn test
diff --git a/scripts/cosm/start.sh b/scripts/cosm/start.sh
index 98f04ff8..c9224905 100755
--- a/scripts/cosm/start.sh
+++ b/scripts/cosm/start.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ echo "Using temporary dir $TMP_DIR"
 WASMD_LOGFILE="$TMP_DIR/wasmd.log"
 REST_SERVER_LOGFILE="$TMP_DIR/rest-server.log"
 
+# pull the newest copy of the docker image
+# this is important as the sleep timeout below will fail on first run (downloading entire docker stack usually > 10s)
+docker pull "$REPOSITORY:$VERSION"
+
 # This starts up wasmd
 docker volume rm -f wasmd_data
 docker run --rm \
@@ -36,6 +40,7 @@ if [ "$(docker inspect -f '{{.State.Running}}' "$CONTAINER_NAME")" != "true" ];
   echo "Container named '$CONTAINER_NAME' not running. We cannot continue." \
     "This can happen when 'docker run' needs too long to download and start." \
     "It might be worth retrying this step once the image is in the local docker cache."
+  docker kill "$CONTAINER_NAME"
   exit 1
 fi