diff --git a/src/zmq_anyio/_socket.py b/src/zmq_anyio/_socket.py
index 9876083..7e7a43c 100644
--- a/src/zmq_anyio/_socket.py
+++ b/src/zmq_anyio/_socket.py
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
 
 import select
 import selectors
+import threading
 import warnings
 from collections import deque
 from contextlib import AsyncExitStack
 from functools import partial
 from itertools import chain
 from socket import socketpair
-from threading import Event
 from typing import (
     Any,
     Awaitable,
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@
     cast,
 )
 
-from anyio import create_task_group, from_thread, sleep, to_thread, wait_socket_readable
-from anyio.abc import TaskGroup
+from anyio import Event, TASK_STATUS_IGNORED, create_task_group, from_thread, sleep, to_thread, wait_socket_readable
+from anyio.abc import TaskGroup, TaskStatus
 from anyioutils import Future, Task, create_task
 
 import zmq
@@ -166,9 +166,10 @@ class Socket(zmq.Socket):
     _fd = None
     _exit_stack = None
     _task_group = None
-    _stop_event = None
     _select_socket_r = None
     _select_socket_w = None
+    _stopped = None
+    _started = None
 
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -193,15 +194,16 @@ def __init__(
         self._send_futures = deque()
         self._state = 0
         self._fd = self._shadow_sock.FD
-        self._stop_event = Event()
         self._select_socket_r, self._select_socket_w = socketpair()
         self._select_socket_r.setblocking(False)
         self._select_socket_w.setblocking(False)
+        self._started = Event()
+        self._stopped = threading.Event()
 
     def close(self, linger: int | None = None) -> None:
-        assert self._stop_event is not None
+        assert self._stopped is not None
         assert self._select_socket_w is not None
-        self._stop_event.set()
+        self._stopped.set()
         self._select_socket_w.send(b"a")
         if not self.closed and self._fd is not None:
             event_list: list[_FutureEvent] = list(
@@ -678,26 +680,33 @@ async def __aenter__(self) -> Socket:
         async with AsyncExitStack() as exit_stack:
             self._task_group = await exit_stack.enter_async_context(create_task_group())
             self._exit_stack = exit_stack.pop_all()
-            self._task_group.start_soon(self.start)
+            await self._task_group.start(self.start)
 
         return self
 
     async def __aexit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, exc_tb):
+        try:
+            self.close()
+        except BaseException:
+            pass
         self._task_group.cancel_scope.cancel()
-        self.close()
         return await self._exit_stack.__aexit__(exc_type, exc_value, exc_tb)
 
-    async def start(self):
-        await to_thread.run_sync(self._reader, abandon_on_cancel=True)
-        #create_task(self._handle_events(task_group), task_group)
+    async def start(self, *, task_status: TaskStatus[None] = TASK_STATUS_IGNORED) -> None:
+        assert self._task_group is not None
+        assert self._started is not None
+        self._task_group.start_soon(partial(to_thread.run_sync, self._reader, abandon_on_cancel=True))
+        await self._started.wait()
+        task_status.started()
 
     def _reader(self):
+        from_thread.run_sync(self._started.set)
         while True:
             try:
                 rs, ws, xs = select.select([self._shadow_sock, self._select_socket_r.fileno()], [], [self._shadow_sock, self._select_socket_r.fileno()])
             except OSError as e:
                 return
-            if self._stop_event.is_set():
+            if self._stopped.is_set():
                 return
             self._read()
 
diff --git a/tests/test_socket.py b/tests/test_socket.py
index c7d7857..a35620e 100644
--- a/tests/test_socket.py
+++ b/tests/test_socket.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import pytest
 import zmq
-from anyio import create_task_group, sleep
+from anyio import create_task_group, move_on_after, sleep, to_thread
 from zmq_anyio import Socket
 
 pytestmark = pytest.mark.anyio
@@ -81,3 +81,28 @@ async def recv():
         tg.start_soon(recv)
         await sleep(0.1)
         a.send(b"hi")
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("total_threads", [1, 2])
+async def test_start_socket(total_threads, create_bound_pair):
+    to_thread.current_default_thread_limiter().total_tokens = total_threads
+
+    a, b = map(Socket, create_bound_pair(zmq.REQ, zmq.REP))
+    a_started = False
+    b_started = False
+
+    with pytest.raises(BaseException):
+        async with b:
+            b_started = True
+            with move_on_after(0.1):
+                async with a:
+                    a_started = True
+                    raise RuntimeError
+
+    assert b_started
+    if total_threads == 1:
+        assert not a_started
+    else:
+        assert a_started
+    
+    to_thread.current_default_thread_limiter().total_tokens = 40