IOTA was announced late October, crowdsale started late November and lasted to late December. We were covered in all the crypto-sites, several of the crypto slacks, so not sure how you missed it either. We didn't have a marketing budget and we didn't want to hype it for months, so we couldn't pull a Ethereum or Augur, but several hundred participated, so I think you must've just been unlucky if you didn't catch it.

The best way to acquire IOTA now is to either:

1. Offer some work, community members may put up a bounty or pay for tasks
2. Wait for it to come on exchanges after launch
3. Buy from someone (you should use trusted escrow)