diff --git a/backend/src/bootstrap/startup.ts b/backend/src/bootstrap/startup.ts
index a55c7eeb..19812cda 100644
--- a/backend/src/bootstrap/startup.ts
+++ b/backend/src/bootstrap/startup.ts
@@ -29,27 +29,29 @@ export async function startServer(server: Server): Promise<void> {
     console.error('Migration failed:', error);
   }
 
+  // Synchronous starts: schedule background timers and continue. None of
+  // these fire their first tick for at least a few seconds, so they
+  // safely run alongside the async initializers below.
   LicenseService.getInstance().initialize();
-
-  await SelfUpdateService.getInstance().initialize();
-
   MonitorService.getInstance().start();
   AutoHealService.getInstance().start();
-
-  await DockerEventManager.getInstance().start();
-
-  await TrivyService.getInstance().initialize();
-
   ImageUpdateService.getInstance().start();
-
   SchedulerService.getInstance().start();
+  MfaService.getInstance().start();
 
+  // Async initializers are independent of each other; run in parallel
+  // so total boot time is the slowest one rather than the sum.
+  await Promise.all([
+    SelfUpdateService.getInstance().initialize(),
+    DockerEventManager.getInstance().start(),
+    TrivyService.getInstance().initialize(),
+  ]);
+
+  // Fire-and-forget housekeeping; logged but never awaited.
   sweepStaleGitTempDirs().catch((err) => {
     console.warn('[GitSource] Temp dir sweep failed:', (err as Error).message);
   });
 
-  MfaService.getInstance().start();
-
   const isPilotAgent = process.env.SENCHO_MODE === 'pilot';
   const listenHost = isPilotAgent ? '127.0.0.1' : undefined;
 
diff --git a/backend/src/services/SelfUpdateService.ts b/backend/src/services/SelfUpdateService.ts
index d2a19c9a..fd34cd89 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/SelfUpdateService.ts
+++ b/backend/src/services/SelfUpdateService.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { execFileSync, execFile } from 'child_process';
+import { execFile } from 'child_process';
 import { promisify } from 'util';
 import * as fs from 'fs';
 import DockerController from './DockerController';
@@ -63,9 +63,12 @@ class SelfUpdateService {
         return;
       }
 
-      // Verify docker compose CLI is available inside the container
+      // Verify docker compose CLI is available inside the container.
+      // execFileAsync (not Sync) so the parallel boot-task block in
+      // bootstrap/startup.ts can actually run TrivyService and DockerEventManager
+      // concurrently instead of waiting on a 5s blocking spawn here.
       try {
-        execFileSync('docker', ['compose', 'version'], { stdio: 'pipe', timeout: 5000 });
+        await execFileAsync('docker', ['compose', 'version'], { timeout: 5000 });
       } catch {
         console.log('[SelfUpdate] docker compose CLI not available in container');
         disableCapability('self-update');