The 70% Delegation Threshold
Delegate any task the moment someone can do it 70% as well as you
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 65%
This is a decision rule for the exact moment to hand a task off. Instead of waiting for a replacement who matches your own output, the rule sets a lower, actionable bar: once someone can already execute a task to roughly 70% of your quality, delegate it immediately rather than waiting for perfection. The remaining 30% gets closed through direct coaching after the handoff, not before it. The mechanism forces founders to separate 'good enough to release' from 'perfect,' which is usually the real bottleneck to growth. Machuca applied this after plateauing at $100K/month doing everything himself; hiring 12 people and delegating at the 70% bar took his agency to $500K/month in months.
Origin
Machuca hit a hard ceiling at $100K a month in his marketing agency because he wouldn't let go of tasks. On advice from further-along mentors, he started hiring people who could do a job 70% as well as him, opened an office, brought on 12 friends, and used direct coaching to close the remaining gap.
Core principles
- 01Perfection is the enemy of delegation.
- 02The missing skill gap can be taught after the handoff, not before.
- 03Holding on to every task caps your personal revenue ceiling.
- 04Letting go of control is a trained skill, not a personality trait.
How to run it
- 1
Audit your own task list
Write down every task you're still personally executing rather than assigning out.
Pro tip Include the small recurring tasks, not just the obvious big ones.
- 2
Define the 70% bar
For each task, describe in concrete terms what a result would look like if someone else did it mostly right, not perfectly.
Watch out If you can't describe 70%, you're still holding the bar at 100% without realizing it.
- 3
Hire or reassign to that bar
Stop screening candidates or team members for a perfect match. Screen for someone who already clears the 70% threshold.
- 4
Coach the remaining 30%
Spend your time closing the gap through direct teaching instead of doing the task yourself.
Pro tip Treat this like ongoing coaching, not a one-time training session.
- 5
Release control fully
Once the person clears the bar, stop checking the work line by line.
Watch out Reclaiming the task after one mistake undoes the entire delegation.
- 6
Expect early mistakes
Treat mistakes as the normal cost of scaling rather than proof the delegation failed.
- 7
Re-measure your output
Track whether your own revenue or output increases now that the task is off your plate.
In the wild
Machuca was stuck at $100K a month in his marketing agency because he refused to hand off work. Once he accepted the 70% rule, he opened an office, hired 12 friends, and started coaching them on the remaining gaps instead of doing the work himself.
→ The agency scaled from $100K a month to $500K a month in recurring revenue within a few months of delegating.
Common mistakes
Waiting for a perfect hire
Holding out for someone who matches your exact output quality delays delegation indefinitely and keeps the founder as the bottleneck.
Taking the task back after the first mistake
Reclaiming control the moment something goes wrong signals the delegation was never real and forces the founder back into the ceiling they were trying to escape.
Is it for you?
Best for
A founder or agency owner stuck at a revenue ceiling because they're still doing operational work personally.
Not ideal for
Tasks with legal, safety, or brand-critical risk where anything short of 100% quality causes real damage.
From the transcript
“If you could find somebody to do something 70% as good as you, that's a win. You could teach them the other 30%.”
“I opened up an office, hired 12 of my friends, and that's when we made the push to half a million dollars a month.”
From the episode
Burn the Ships: Bankruptcy, Comebacks & Building LeadHackers ft. Alex Machuca
Alex Machuca