diff --git a/lib/rb/benchmark/server.rb b/lib/rb/benchmark/server.rb
index 5162ac2..37e3358 100644
--- a/lib/rb/benchmark/server.rb
+++ b/lib/rb/benchmark/server.rb
@@ -50,15 +50,15 @@
   const and const.split('::').inject(Object) { |k,c| k.const_get(c) }
 end
 
+host, port, serverklass = ARGV
+
+Server.start_server(host, port.to_i, resolve_const(serverklass))
+
 # let our host know that the interpreter has started
 # ideally we'd wait until the server was serving, but we don't have a hook for that
 Marshal.dump(:started, STDOUT)
 STDOUT.flush
 
-host, port, serverklass = ARGV
-
-Server.start_server(host, port.to_i, resolve_const(serverklass))
-
 Marshal.load(STDIN) # wait until we're instructed to shut down
 
 Server.shutdown