An Icelandic startup that markets cottages to international tourists is setting up shop in Halifax as the launchpad for its Canadian expansion.

Bungalo began in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to help Icelanders in financial straits earn some income by renting out their cottages to tourists from around the world. The enterprise was so successful that it has expanded into Sweden and is now moving into the Canadian market.

“We want to start off in Nova Scotia,” said Founder and CEO Haukur Gudjonsson in an interview Friday. “We think it is the perfect market to establish our proof of concept.”

Bungalo now has 500 Icelandic cottages listed on its site, and has about 16,000 registered users. It also markets cottages in Sweden and has begun a Canadian section on its site, which features a handful of cottages in Nova Scotia. Gudjonsson intends the number of Nova Scotian cottages to grow in the coming months.

He first arrived in Halifax last October, as one of the international mentors at MentorCamp, the one-day instruction session for startups. At that time he had been planning an international expansion, possibly in the Nordic countries, but he grew excited about Halifax and the Canadian market.

Gudjonsson said the size of the Canadian cottage market is impressive and no website has come close to dominating it. He believes Bungalo has a great opportunity to gain market share because of its complete range of services – displaying the property, detailed descriptions, online booking, an international client base and a relationship with tripdadvisor.com.

The company has already hired a sales representative in Halifax and is working out of Volta Labs, while Gudjonsson himself is dividing his time between Halifax and Reykjavík.

He said the company intends to spend the rest of 2014 establishing its proof of concept in the Nova Scotian market and lining up listings for the next season. He then plans to expand across the country, building up presence in one province or region at the time.

Having been in and out of Halifax for several months, Gudjonsson has grown intrigued by the startup community that has many complementary qualities with that of Iceland. Both have young companies growing quickly among a small population base (Iceland has 320,000 people).

He is impressed with the enthusiasm of the Atlantic Canadian community, and the willingness of entrepreneurs here to help one another. Atlantic Canadian governments offer much more support to their startups than Iceland does, which Gudjonsson said is a good and bad thing. Though it supports companies through their lean years, he said, it reduces the incentive to focus on sales. In fact, he believes there is too much emphasis on fundraising over all in Atlantic Canada, even from private sources, when companies should be focusing on generating revenue.

“You have some very talented people here but I think you’re lacking a bit on the sales side,” he said.

As he develops his business here, Gudjonsson hopes to build links between the two startup communities, hopefully getting startups from each community to take part in each other’s events and combining resources.