diff --git a/tools/build-release-tarball b/tools/build-release-tarball
index 9f0340b0db..3657946f7f 100755
--- a/tools/build-release-tarball
+++ b/tools/build-release-tarball
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ mv zulip-git-version "$TMPDIR/$prefix/"
 
 cd "$TMPDIR/$prefix"
 
+ln -s "$BASEDIR/zulip-py3-venv" .
+
 # create var/log directory in the new temporary checkout
 mkdir -p "var/log"