diff --git a/tools/setup/setup_venvs.py b/tools/setup/setup_venvs.py
index 60bab2132e..0370ca1694 100755
--- a/tools/setup/setup_venvs.py
+++ b/tools/setup/setup_venvs.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ if ZULIP_PATH not in sys.path:
     sys.path.append(ZULIP_PATH)
 
 from scripts.lib.setup_venv import setup_virtualenv
-from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import overwrite_symlink, subprocess_text_output
+from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import overwrite_symlink
 
 VENV_PATH = "/srv/zulip-py3-venv"
 
@@ -16,15 +16,11 @@ DEV_REQS_FILE = os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, "requirements", "dev.txt")
 THUMBOR_REQS_FILE = os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, "requirements", "thumbor.txt")
 
 def main() -> None:
-    # Get the correct Python interpreter. If we don't do this and use
-    # `virtualenv -p python3` to create the venv in Travis, the venv
-    # starts referring to the system Python interpreter.
-    python_interpreter = subprocess_text_output(['which', 'python3'])
     setup_virtualenv("/srv/zulip-thumbor-venv", THUMBOR_REQS_FILE,
                      patch_activate_script=True, virtualenv_args=['-p', 'python2.7'])
     cached_venv_path = setup_virtualenv(
         VENV_PATH, DEV_REQS_FILE, patch_activate_script=True,
-        virtualenv_args=['-p', python_interpreter])
+        virtualenv_args=['-p', 'python3'])
     overwrite_symlink(cached_venv_path, os.path.join(ZULIP_PATH, "zulip-py3-venv"))
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":