diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c7f1b967c..e3678b5c1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ GITRECEIVE_URL ?= https://raw.github.com/progrium/gitreceive/master/gitreceive
 SSHCOMMAND_URL ?= https://raw.github.com/progrium/sshcommand/master/sshcommand
 PLUGINHOOK_URL ?= https://s3.amazonaws.com/progrium-pluginhook/pluginhook_0.1.0_amd64.deb
 STACK_URL ?= github.com/progrium/buildstep
+PREBUILT_STACK_URL ?= https://s3.amazonaws.com/progrium-dokku/progrium_buildstep_c30652f59a.tgz
 
 all: dependencies stack install plugins
 
@@ -44,7 +45,11 @@ aufs:
 	lsmod | grep aufs || modprobe aufs || apt-get install -y linux-image-extra-`uname -r`
 
 stack:
+ifdef BUILD_STACK
 	@docker images | grep progrium/buildstep || docker build -t progrium/buildstep ${STACK_URL}
+else
+	@docker images | grep progrium/buildstep || curl ${PREBUILT_STACK_URL} | gunzip -cd | docker import - progrium/buildstep
+endif
 
 count:
 	@echo "Core lines:"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ba610a6ab..9e7ccf7f6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -120,6 +120,18 @@ your own clone of dokku using the DOKKU_REPO environment variable. Example:
     $ chmod +x bootstrap.sh
     $ sudo DOKKU_REPO=https://github.com/yourusername/dokku.git ./bootstrap.sh
 
+## Advanced installation (custom buildstep build)
+
+Dokku ships with a pre-built version of version of the [buildstep] component by
+default. If you want to build your own version you can specify that with an env
+variable.
+
+    $ git clone https://github.com/progrium/dokku.git
+    $ cd dokku
+    $ sudo BUILD_STACK=true make all
+
+[buildstep]: https://github.com/progrium/buildstep
+
 ## Upgrading
 
 Dokku is in active development. You can update the deployment step and the build step separately.