Former IBM exec takes over at Damballa

Security firm Damballa Inc. has replaced its chief executive for a former IBM executive, about a month after raising $8.2 million from a new West Coast venture firm.

Val Rahmani, who moved to Atlanta from Connecticut about a year ago to run IBM’s Internet Security Systems unit, officially moved into the corner office at Damballa Tuesday.

Damballa, whose technology helps sniff out “bot armies” — scores of computers remotely hijacked to commit fraud, is initially looking to add about a dozen jobs, including researchers and engineers. While understandably short on details, Rahmani said she wants to expand Damballa into new products markets and create more awareness about the technology.

“This is a technology that I believe every enterprise and every Internet Service Provider customer needs,” Rahmani told me. "Because we’ve been comparatively small, we haven't had awareness in all those customers.”

Damballa also plans to boost R&D spending.

“You can think of this as a race between us and the bad guys,” Rahmani said. “We intend to continue to stay well ahead of the bad guys.” In October, Damballa raised $8.2 million in a round led by Santa Monica, Calif.-based Palomar Ventures. Previous investors in the firm include Menlo Park, Calif.-based InterWest Partners LLC, Sigma Partners and Atlanta’s Imlay Investments Inc. and Noro-Moseley Partners.

Rahmani replaced Steve Linowes, a former Yahoo! Inc. executive and co-founder of the nonprofit TechBridge, a provider of technologies for other nonprofits. When asked if the CEO change was driven by the company's venture backers, Rahmani said, “I just think it was the right time for change.”

Rahmani’s connections at the CIO level will help Damballa with customer development, Noro-Moseley Partner Alan Taetle said.

But moving from a major organization to a startup and having to sell without the backing of thousands of salespeople and the IBM brand will pose challenges, Taetle noted.

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