It's not smart.
It's called (Insider-Trading) he got early-information about the listing. Fun-fact, my self working as moderator we got some early information as well for the project I was manage to hit listing on exchange.
I can buy the token before listing on the new exchange. So, this one it's not smart just because he got insider-information and make him (insider-trading).
I'll be leaning to this one instead of the fact that he's just lucky, but thinking which has a higher chance of it to happen, I think having an insider is more feasible than the investor just being lucky. Being lucky in investing into projects like this is like 1 in a million.
I remembered when I joined in a bounty campaign back in 2018, I manage to join a channel for a particular project where they are sharing the updates there earlier. It's like an inside-trading channel. I manage to maximize it as well gaining profits selling their tokens, but at the same time I feel bad for those investors, and those who joined in their bounty campaign that isn't on that channel because they are already at a loss because developers already sold their tokens way earlier.
Anyway, I don't believe that the person who manage to x1000 his 1000$ isn't lucky, but he has access to an inside-trading channel like you said. To those who are believing that the guy is lucky, wake up, and think that it's almost impossible to happen.