There’s no doubt that college years are some of the most formative in young people’s lives. On the brink of freedom and adulthood, many of us find ourselves wondering if we’re doing the right things or whether we’ve chosen the right path. Will Malnati ’07 is living proof that Cornell sets you up for success in life, even if the endpoint isn’t exactly what you envisioned. Entrepreneur extraordinaire, Malnati took his education from the School of Hotel Administration and turned it into a thriving content creation studio.
On Aug. 25, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Malnati to talk about his slightly-unconventional journey to the world of entertainment. Like so many of us, he came onto campus with a preconceived idea of what he wanted to pursue. “I went to Cornell to study hospitality. My family was in hospitality. I just … figured that was the path I was going to take, the path that made sense to me when I was coming in as a freshman,” Malnati shared. Despite enjoying what he was learning, Malnati always felt a pull toward the entertainment and production sectors, something he identified as “an indication that maybe what I was studying wasn’t exactly what I was going to end up doing.”
Despite that feeling, Malnati went into his family’s business post-graduation. Even so, he didn’t feel like restaurants or his family’s business were completely the right path. He moved to New York, dabbled in both the creative and business side of music, and ended up managing a nightclub. Although not directly what he was taught in the hotel school, Malnati found the skills he’d learned at Cornell were translatable directly to this new endeavor. “What the hotel school did for me was it really allowed me to learn how to be entrepreneurial and taught me … how to be a great manager.” The nightclub scene dipped further into the realm that had called to him for so long. “There were lots of entertainment pieces involved in [nightclub management],” Malnati said, which made him feel closer to what he had really always wanted to pursue. The world of entertainment was actually extremely close-by, given that Malnati even got to host Lady Gaga before she blew up.
Not content to be stagnant, Malnati decided to pivot again, drawing on the entrepreneurial skills he’d honed at Cornell to start his own restaurants. “The next five years were incredible — me having something of my own and feeling like I had really created something from scratch.” But, again, passion could not be denied for long. “I loved it until I started getting that tapping on the shoulder again,” Malnati shared, remembering how he’d asked himself, “‘Is this what you want for your life? Is this going to bring you the most happiness?’” and “‘How many times can I feel that I don’t really care?’” It didn’t all happen at once; there was no blinding moment of realization that he needed to change his life. Instead, Malnati coined his change “a slow pivot” spurred on by the fact that he was “tired of seeing everyone else care so much about these things that [he had] to force [himself] to care about.”
Feeling behind the ball, having spent so many years in another industry entirely, Malnati knew that he had to be innovative to break into the entertainment industry at the level he wanted to be performing at. Looking around the landscape, he asked, “‘What are the areas that are not really happening yet? Are not very popular yet but could have a chance to be?’” The answer? Podcasts. Inspired by the fact that podcasts are such a versatile medium, Malnati planted his stake in the ground and started working on his own company, At Will Media. “I started building At Will Media in 2016, when podcasts were relatively unheard of and really over the past nine years have been able to grow … into something I’m really proud of.”
That long pivot really paid off in terms of personal satisfaction and absolutely incredible output. “Now that I'm in entertainment, I truly love [all factors of entertainment]. I love doing them, I love learning more about them, I love feeling challenged by them,” Malnati said. And, even so seemingly far from restaurants, his skills carried over. “What I think I’m good at is picking a piece of art that I think will be able to go the distance … and being able to manage the people surrounding that art and being able to execute at a high level. Those are my biggest qualities, and it all comes back to hospitality and the things I learned at school … how to execute, honestly.”
As a testament to the success that follows passion, one of At Will Media’s podcasts is being adapted into an Apple TV+ series. Wild Things follows Siegfried and Roy, two famous magicians, one of whom was attacked onstage by a tiger. The series will star Jude Law and Andrew Garfield, with Malnati as the executive producer. Another of their podcasts, Alien Earth, was ranked number one on Apple Podcasts.
I wish I could include everything Malnati shared with me in the interview, including his encounter with the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, who provided Malnati with his first big project and encouraged him to take the leap into entertainment full-send.
As a parting message, and one that will surely provide me much comfort during my mid-semester crisis about the future, Malnati said this: “It’s important to know that just because you’re studying the thing that you’re studying right now doesn’t mean that’s where you’re going to end up. But, a lot of the skills you learn right now … will have an impact in whatever you decide to do. That’s important.”
Melissa Moon is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
Melissa Moon is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is an Assistant Arts & Culture Editor on the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
