diff --git a/cluster-autoscaler/main.go b/cluster-autoscaler/main.go
index 888c34ac2c2b..d17b7e7d5271 100644
--- a/cluster-autoscaler/main.go
+++ b/cluster-autoscaler/main.go
@@ -608,6 +608,13 @@ func buildAutoscaler(debuggingSnapshotter debuggingsnapshot.DebuggingSnapshotter
 	// additional informers might have been registered in the factory during NewAutoscaler.
 	stop := make(chan struct{})
 	informerFactory.Start(stop)
+	testP, err := opts.AutoscalingKubeClients.ListerRegistry.AllPodLister().List()
+	klog.V(1).Infof("initial pods: %v (%v)", testP, err)
+	klog.V(1).Info("Started shared informer factory, waiting for initial cache sync")
+
+	syncStart := time.Now()
+	informerFactory.WaitForCacheSync(stop)
+	klog.V(1).Infof("Shared informer factory initialized, took %v", time.Since(syncStart))
 
 	return autoscaler, nil
 }