diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
index 529c01b8..6d973a5f 100755
--- a/start.sh
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ sed -i "s|BASE_URL:\"[^\"]*\"|BASE_URL:\"${REMARK_URL}\"|g" /srv/web/*.js
 sed -i "s|var baseurl = '[^']*';|var baseurl = '${REMARK_URL}';|g" /srv/web/*.html
 
 # copy default avatar
+mkdir -p /srv/var/avatars
 cp -fv /srv/web/remark.image /srv/var/avatars/remark.image
 
 echo "start remark42 server"