diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5036ec9..2db4dff 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@
 ## Setup instructions:
 
 * download Warble Server (or clone if you dare!)
+* Make sure you have the following python 3 libs installed:
+* * bcrypt
+* * yaml
+* * sqlite3
 * run `python3 setup/setup.py` and follow the instructions
 * fire up the main application as WSGI, for instance via gunicorn: 
 * * `cd /path/to/warble/api`
diff --git a/setup/setup.py b/setup/setup.py
index 87c59cc..6e1e10d 100644
--- a/setup/setup.py
+++ b/setup/setup.py
@@ -25,10 +25,18 @@
 
 import os
 import sys
-import yaml
-import bcrypt
-import sqlite3
 
+# Test for additional imports, bork if not found
+try:
+    import yaml
+    import bcrypt
+    import sqlite3
+except:
+    print("Looks like you are missing a few python 3 libraries")
+    print("Warble needs the following py3 libs to work: yaml, bcrypt, sqlite3")
+    print("Please install these libraries before continuing")
+    sys.exit(-1)
+    
 # Figure out absolute setup and api paths
 setup_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
 api_path = os.path.realpath("%s/../api" % setup_path)