diff --git a/binder/init b/binder/init
deleted file mode 100755
index c381fca4e..000000000
--- a/binder/init
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-VERSION=`cat VERSION`
-PORT=`cat PORT`
-MONGODB_BIN=`m bin $VERSION`
-mlaunch init --replicaset --name repl0 --nodes 3 --binarypath \
-$MONGODB_BIN --port $PORT --hostname localhost --setParameter \
-enableTestCommands=1 
-mongo
-VERSION=`cat VERSION`
-PORT=`cat PORT`
-MONGODB_BIN=`m bin $VERSION`
-CMD="$MONGODB_BIN/mongo mongodb://localhost:$PORT/?replicaSet=repl0"
-echo "$CMD"
-$CMD
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/binder/start b/binder/start
index 9d0be50f2..de053f4d8 100755
--- a/binder/start
+++ b/binder/start
@@ -2,11 +2,26 @@
 import sys
 import shutil
 import os
+import shlex
 import subprocess
 
+HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+
+with open(os.path.join(HERE, 'VERSION')) as fid:
+    VERSION = fid.read().strip()
+
+with open(os.path.join(HERE, 'PORT')) as fid:
+    PORT = fid.read().strip()
+
 # Start the local mongodb as a background task
-binder_folder = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'binder')
-subprocess.check_call(['bash', 'init'], shell=True, cwd=binder_folder)
+MONGODB_BIN = subprocess.check_output(['m', 'bin', VERSION]).decode('utf-8').strip()
+
+cmd = ['mlaunch', 'init', '--replicaset', '--name', 'repl0', '--nodes', '3', '--binarypath',
+MONGODB_BIN, '--port', PORT, '--hostname', 'localhost', '--setParameter',
+'enableTestCommands=1']
+
+print(cmd)
+subprocess.check_call(cmd, cwd=HERE)
 
 # Launch Jupyter
 argv = sys.argv[1:]