* Joe Fernandez: Startups aren’t supposed to be easy

* Robert Cyran: Gates should follow Ballmer out of Microsoft

* Morning Call: U.S. futures up, Europe steady and Japan climbs.

* Big deal: Lixil buying Grohe

* Dark clouds: Margin debt on the rise

* Sigh of relief: Gov’t shutdown loses steam

* Move over Winklevii: This is the first Bitcoin fund

* Apple market share: Facts and psychology

* Breakdown: The typical VC/startup diligence process

* Farhad Manjoo: Dear Twitter, please remain weird

* Thanks public equity: Public pension assets hit record high

* Math marketing: Why Boston has a burgeoning ad-tech cluster

* Henry Blodget: Ayn Rand biz philosophy is ruining the U.S. economy

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* Bad BlackBerry news: Cancels earnings call and T-Mobile stores stop stocking

* Erin Griffith: Attending my first ‘demo day’ in the general solicitation age

* Post-crisis world: Sovereign wealth funds put pressure on private equity

* Not accepted: AIG CEO apologizes for comparing bonus criticism to slavery

* Things that make you go hmmm: Two weeks ago, a spike in MAKO Surgical options actity