Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc._2024 Proxy Statement

4450 Excelsior Blvd., Suite 100 St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Fellow Shareholders, On behalf of the Board of Directors of Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc., I would like to invite you to join us at our 2024 annual meeting of shareholders, which will be held virtually through a live webcast. Our virtual meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. CT. Please see the enclosed Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders for additional details regarding the meeting. As we look back at 2023, I am proud of the way Bridgewater responded to a very challenging banking environment, which included several bank failures and the continuation

of an unprecedented rise in interest rates. We leveraged our talented teams and deep client relationships, optimized our balance sheet, managed our expenses, and maintained our superb asset quality, all while never losing sight of the culture and core values that have made Bridgewater Bank the finest entrepreneurial bank in the Twin Cities. As a result, we saw momentum build in the second half of the year, which we believe positions us well for 2024. This included a stabilizing net interest margin, improving loan demand in a strong Twin Cities market, and optimism that interest rate cuts and a more normalized yield curve could eventually be on the horizon. We have also taken steps to further enhance our overall corporate governance practices. These included eliminating our classified board structure, adopting an executive compensation clawback policy, and including a Say-on Pay proposal in this year’s proxy statement to ensure our executive compensation structure aligns with the interests of our shareholders. Lastly, we continued to make progress on our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives and shared updates on that progress with our stakeholders via our ESG Webpage. In closing, we encourage you to vote your shares by following the enclosed instructions. Thank you for your continued support and investment in Bridgewater.

Jerry Baack

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President March 11, 2024