Iras Valentine

Born in Waterdeep to Gremio and Carlise Valentine, Iras was not the typical son of a stable hand. He was curious and constantly looking answers to every question that popped into his head, and to invent things. He loved experimenting with his father's tools, fixing them, or making them more efficient for the hard tasks. At some point, his father's boss, a merchant living in the North Ward by the name of Filgorn Istamin, noticed the work that Iras had been doing on Germio's tools. Filgorn was a dwarf who saw potential in people who others wouldn't think to look twice at. Seeing an opportunity, he met with Iras.
Filgorn spoke to Iras and his parents, and after a lengthy interview, he offered to send Iras through school to train his inquisitive mind. He also moved the family into one of the smaller homes he had in the North Ward after seeing their home in the Dock Ward. For one, Gremio would be closer to work, and Filgorn treated his servants kinder than many of the other merchants and nobles in the area, but also so Iras could focus on school and not have to travel as far to get there. In return, Iras would work for Filgorn when he grew up for a few years time, helping him improve items in the merchant's inventory and creating new things that he could use.
Other merchants said the boy was a bad investment, but Filgorn prided his eye for talent.
School days were hard on Iras, as the other students knew he came from the lower classes. This didn't deter the boy, though the bullying was relentless at times, he pushed through it. Going through school, he was an outcast and thought of as, not just poor, but very strange. He would mutter to himself, find the oddest things fascinating, and was actually dedicated to learning, versus many of the other students who went just to learn to read and gain a basic understanding of mathematics so they could take over the family businesses someday. 
His hard work did catch the attentions of another student when he was about 16. Her name was Ellebeth Gerrensberg, a half-elf bastard daughter of a minor noble family. She was there to work for her older sibling who was the heir to the family fortune, and Ellebeth would be the one running the financials for them. She liked Iras's dedication to learning and they would often study together. One thing led to another and they started a secret romance. 
As they graduated, seeing each other was next to impossible, but they kept sending love letters to each other secretly and they continue this romance to this day, never being able to openly be romantic, but never letting that deter them.
After graduating, Iras went to work for Filgorn as a tinker. He had picked up enough skills outside of school by bothering other Waterdeep tinkers to teach him that with his education, he jumped right into the profession. His salary was enough for him to eventually buy the house Filgorn had lent him, and he has many patents in his and Filgorn's names that continue to make money (mostly improved farming tools as well as a few ship's pullies that he is quite proud of). 
After his term of service with Filgorn was up, he turned the upstairs of his parent's house (he had bought it in their name) into a workshop and is an independent tinker and inventor. The neighbors, who are higher born and mostly merchants, think the Valentine's are weird, as they see Gremio still go to work for Filgorn in his stables (as a stablemaster now) and their son is up all hours of the night working on...whatever it is he's working on. They don't mind though, as even though they are not wealthy, they have moved up far in the world for Carlise and Gremio having been born in the Dock Ward.
Iras's business didn't have a name for awhile, but on the insistence of Carlise he came up with one: Valentine Solutions. Carlise did not like that name, but Iras felt like that sort of thing may catch on eventually. It hasn't.