diff --git a/init.sh b/init.sh
index 98a011b..c93c8b7 100755
--- a/init.sh
+++ b/init.sh
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ git remote remove origin
 # remove this script from the project (but keep on disk for now)
 git rm --cached init.sh
 
+# replace the README with a stub
+echo "# $name" >| README.md
+
 # escape HTML special characters (&, <, and >), but also sed special characters (& again, \, and /)
 htmlname=$(echo -n "$name" | sed 's/&/\&amp;/g;  s/</\&lt;/g;  s/>/\&gt;/g;  s:[\\/&]:\\&:g')
 sed -i "s/PROJECT NAME/$htmlname/" ui/src/main_window.ui