One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Quiz Show, where Charles Van Doren says "You'll forgive me, but anyone who thinks money is ever "just money" couldn't have much of it."  I agree with the gist of that statement but in a more general sense.  I would suggest that anyone who thinks money is just money doesn't understand it's nature.  Money is imho, always, far more than just money.<p>Anyway, that personal note aside.  The whole point behind Lean Startups is to avoid or minimize that type of burn rate.  I couldn't disagree more that the graph is a "result" of being a lean startup.  That graph is a result of living on your savings before the company is generating enough money to support you.  I'm not passing any judgment on whether that is a good idea or not, just suggesting that the decline in your savings is independent of the startup type.  For instance, some of us choose to work a day job while building our startups so we don't have to burn through our savings - but that is a fairly personal choice.