diff --git a/handler/handler.go b/handler/handler.go
index 1b5f8e8..9f1a813 100644
--- a/handler/handler.go
+++ b/handler/handler.go
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ func (j *job) WriteFile(dir string, data *annotator.Annotations) error {
 
 	// Create the necessary subdirectories.
 	dir = dir + j.timestamp.Format("/2006/01/02/")
-	err = fs.MkdirAll(dir, 0777)
+	err = fs.MkdirAll(dir, 0755)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index bad67ec..d1c7ad0 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"flag"
 	"log"
 	"net"
+	"os"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -72,6 +73,10 @@ func main() {
 	flag.Parse()
 	rtx.Must(flagx.ArgsFromEnv(flag.CommandLine), "Could not get args from environment variables")
 
+	// Create the datatype directory immediately, since pusher will crash
+	// without it.
+	rtx.Must(os.MkdirAll(*datadir, 0755), "Could not create datatype dir %s", datadir)
+
 	// Parse the node's name into its constituent parts. This ensures that the
 	// value of the -hostname flag is actually valid. Additionally, virtual
 	// nodes which are part of a managed instance group may have a random