diff --git a/functions/src/index.ts b/functions/src/index.ts
index 478ec09cde..5aa5eb8deb 100644
--- a/functions/src/index.ts
+++ b/functions/src/index.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 import * as admin from 'firebase-admin';
-admin.initializeApp();
+import * as firestore from 'firebase-admin/firestore';
+
+/* This should improve cold starts, no emulator support yet though
+   https://github.com/firebase/firebase-admin-node/pull/1901 */
+firestore.initializeFirestore(admin.initializeApp(), {
+  preferRest: !process.env.FUNCTIONS_EMULATOR,
+});
 
 export * from './api';
 export * from './slack';