Ask HN: Does it help to launch prior to applying to YC?

Launching is a huge milestone, and coincidentally were planning to launch ~2 weeks after the the YC deadline of Oct 2. Would it improve our chances if we expedited our 'soft' launch prior to our application submission? While we don't foresee any crazy spikes in revs occurring that week, we do however expect hundreds of free users ( our current beta-testers ) thoughts?