diff --git a/cloudbuild.yaml b/cloudbuild.yaml
index 1a924471..e60d5f0f 100644
--- a/cloudbuild.yaml
+++ b/cloudbuild.yaml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ steps:
       '--platform', 'managed',
       '--allow-unauthenticated',
       '--add-cloudsql-instances', '${_CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME}',
-      '--update-env-vars', 'SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT=prod,COMPRESS_ENABLED=true,DJANGO_DEBUG=false,USE_DOCKER=yes,DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE=False,DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.production,DJANGO_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT=False,WEB_CONCURRENCY=4,DJANGO_EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX=[mle],DJANGO_SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=True,DJANGO_SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY=True,DJANGO_SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS=True,DJANGO_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT=True,DJANGO_SECURE_BROWSER_XSS_FILTER=True,DJANGO_SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF=True,DJANGO_SECURE_FRAME_DENY=True,DJANGO_ACCOUNT_ALLOW_REGISTRATION=${_DJANGO_ACCOUNT_ALLOW_REGISTRATION},DJANGO_GCP_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME=${_DJANGO_GCP_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME},SENTRY_DSN=${_SENTRY_DSN},DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=${_DJANGO_SECRET_KEY},DJANGO_ADMIN_URL=${_DJANGO_ADMIN_URL},MAILGUN_API_KEY=${_MAILGUN_API_KEY},MAILGUN_DOMAIN=${_MAILGUN_DOMAIN},MAILGUN_API_URL=${_MAILGUN_API_URL},DJANGO_SERVER_EMAIL=${_DJANGO_SERVER_EMAIL},DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL=${_DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL},INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME=${_CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME}:${COMMIT_SHA},POSTGRES_HOST=${_POSTGRES_HOST},POSTGRES_PORT=${_POSTGRES_PORT},POSTGRES_DB=${_POSTGRES_DB},POSTGRES_USER=${_POSTGRES_USER},POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${_POSTGRES_PASSWORD}'
+      '--update-env-vars', 'SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT=prod,COMPRESS_ENABLED=true,DJANGO_DEBUG=false,USE_DOCKER=yes,DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE=False,DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.production,DJANGO_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT=False,WEB_CONCURRENCY=4,DJANGO_EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX=[mle],DJANGO_SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=True,DJANGO_SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY=True,DJANGO_SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS=True,DJANGO_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT=True,DJANGO_SECURE_BROWSER_XSS_FILTER=True,DJANGO_SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF=True,DJANGO_SECURE_FRAME_DENY=True,DJANGO_ACCOUNT_ALLOW_REGISTRATION=${_DJANGO_ACCOUNT_ALLOW_REGISTRATION},DJANGO_GCP_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME=${_DJANGO_GCP_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME},SENTRY_DSN=${_SENTRY_DSN},DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=${_DJANGO_SECRET_KEY},DJANGO_ADMIN_URL=${_DJANGO_ADMIN_URL},MAILGUN_API_KEY=${_MAILGUN_API_KEY},MAILGUN_DOMAIN=${_MAILGUN_DOMAIN},MAILGUN_API_URL=${_MAILGUN_API_URL},DJANGO_SERVER_EMAIL=${_DJANGO_SERVER_EMAIL},DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL=${_DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL},INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME=${_CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME}:${COMMIT_SHA},POSTGRES_HOST=${_POSTGRES_HOST},POSTGRES_PORT=${_POSTGRES_PORT},POSTGRES_DB=${_POSTGRES_DB},POSTGRES_USER=${_POSTGRES_USER},POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${_POSTGRES_PASSWORD},CLOUD_SQL_PROXY_VERSION=${_CLOUD_SQL_PROXY_VERSION}'
   ]
 
 images:
diff --git a/entrypoint b/entrypoint
index a343f58c..e5a8a327 100644
--- a/entrypoint
+++ b/entrypoint
@@ -4,10 +4,20 @@ set -o errexit
 set -o pipefail
 set -o nounset
 
+# set up Cloud SQL proxy
+if [ -z "${CLOUD_SQL_PROXY_VERSION}" ]; then
+    export CLOUD_SQL_PROXY_VERSION=v1.23.0 # see https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/cloudsql-proxy/releases
+fi
+wget "https://storage.googleapis.com/cloudsql-proxy/$VERSION/cloud_sql_proxy.linux.amd64" -O cloud_sql_proxy
+chmod +x cloud_sql_proxy
+cloud_sql_proxy -dir=/cloudsql -instances=$INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME & # run in the background!
+echo "Created Cloud SQL Proxy at $INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME, running in the background"
+
 if [ -z "${POSTGRES_USER}" ]; then
     base_postgres_image_default_user='postgres'
     export POSTGRES_USER="${base_postgres_image_default_user}"
 fi
+echo "Set/checked POSTGRES_USER..."
 
 # omit the port when running on App Engine, Cloud Run etc
 if [ -z "${INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME}"]; then
@@ -46,15 +56,15 @@ until postgres_ready; do
 done
 >&2 echo 'PostgreSQL is available'
 
-python /app/manage.py collectstatic --noinput
->&2 echo 'Collected static files...'
-
 python /app/manage.py migrate
 >&2 echo 'Ran database migrations...'
 
 python /app/manage.py createcachetable
 >&2 echo 'Created the cache table...'
 
+python /app/manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+>&2 echo 'Collected static files...'
+
 compress_enabled() {
 python << END
 import sys