I think it's depend on the "Meme" Coin/Token itself, SHIBA was successful because it was listed on Binance in the first place and get more attention from the community because of that, Every "Meme" Coin/Token out there always having a good concept but still it's need another factor like you said to become successful Community-Driven Project. Indeed investing earlier on Some ILO/IDO sometimes will give good chance to gain some profit but the hype was over and the market already full of it.