Founder / VC input please. we built MVP, validated product by winning an international competition held by a well know organization. we are now seeking commitments to raise our pre-seed for further product development and bringing beta to market by Q1 of 2023, a few key hires, for runway 12-16 months.

• round totaling $1.2M. this was calculated and based on our needs. is there a round benchmark founders are supposed to follow?
• one VC who showed interest asked for our valuation. how do we go about calculating that? (pre or post money raise..)